THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


TEACHER  RECRUITING  SERIES 

PERSONALITYCULTURE 

by 
COLLEGE  FACULTIES 


After  visil 


of   all 


INSTITUTE  FOR  PUBLIC  SERVICE 
NEW  YORK  CITY 


EDUCATIONAL  STUDIES  AND  REPORTS 

BY 
INSTITUTE  FOB  PUBLIC  SERVICE  INCLUDE 


Self-surveying  and  teacher  recruiting 

Who's    Who    and    Why    in    After   War    Education 
Rainbow     Promises     of     Progress     in     Education 
Teacher   Benefits   from    School   Surveys 
Self  Surveys  by  Teacher  Training  Schools 
Surveys  by  Teacher  Training  Schools 
Record  Aids  in  College  Management 
Pick  Your  Prof  or  Getting  By  in  College 
Personality  culture  by  College  Faculties 

War  civics 

Liberty  the  Giant  Killer 

Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War 

War  Fact  Tests 

Civic  Lessons  from  War  Facts 

Unconditional  Surrender  Civics 

Teachable  Facts  about  Bolshevism  and  Sovietism 

Universal  Training  for  American  citizenship 

Field  studies 

High  Spots  in  New  York  Schools 
Budget  studies  for  Virginia 
Reorganization  studies  for  Ohio 
Reconstruction  studies  for  Michigan 

Latin  America 

How  Latin  America  Affects  our  Daily  Life 
How  We  Affect  Latin  America's  Daily  Life 

Teacher  recruiting  bulletins 

The  Rewards  of  Teaching 

Teachers  Salaries  a  National  Peril 

Why  Not  Teach? 

Why  I  Like  Teaching 

Career  Boundaries  for  American  Girls 

Boys,  After  High  School  What? 

Teacherless  Schools  and  Holiday  Thoughts 

University   Presidents  on   Teacher  Recruiting 

Cartoonist  Ireland  on  Cartooning  Teachers 

Colossal  Growth  of  Higher  Education 


Copyright,  1920  by  Institute  for 
Public  Service,  New  York  City 


Education 
Lihrarf 


INTRODUCTION 


"Personalityculture  by  College  Faculties"  is  based  up- 
on observations  of  seventy-two  university  instructors  at 
work  in  over  one  hundred  summer  school  classes.  It  is  a 
plea  for  nation-wide  insistence  upon  the  highest  types  of 
personality  for  college  instructors. 

Its  personality  portraits  are  by  a  former  university  stu- 
dent, himself  but  a  few  years  out  of  college,  who  frankly 
tried  to  see  these  seventy-two  instructors  as  their  own 
students  were  seeing  them,  rather  than  as  extensive  and 
intensive  explorations  of  their  possibilities  by  college 
authorities  might  reveal  them. 

This  book  is  issued  by  the  Institute  for  Public  Service 
as  part  of  its  efforts  to  help  America  see  the  utmost  im- 
portance of  recruiting  her  ablest  and  noblest  personal- 
ities into  the  teaching  profession. 

Nothing  short  of  the  strongest  personalities  in  our  uni- 
versities, technical  schools  and  colleges — not  even 
double  or  quadruple  salaries — will  give  to  teaching  the 
reputation  necessary  to  attract  able  young  men  and  women 
into  this  greatest  of  all  public  services. 

The  "personalities  plus"  here  described  prove  that  it 
is  not  necessary  to  select  "low  level  personalities"  for 
American  colleges  and  training  schools,  and  support  the 
author's  plea  for  conscious  and  systematic  personality- 
culture  by  American  colleges  and  universities. 

This  question  of  teacher  personality  in  our  colleges  is 
by  no  means  a  mere  academic  question.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  urgently  practical  questions  before 
higher  education.  In  fact,  unless  more  attention  is  given 


to  personalityculture  by  faculties,  it  is  doubtful  if  our  col- 
leges, universities  and  professional  schools  can  add  teachers 
of  the  right  kind,  or  even  teachers  of  any  kind,  fast  enough 
to  take  care  of  the  enormous  increases  in  student  register 
which  are  on  the  horizon. 

Between  1914  and  1920  the  register  in  210  colleges 
and  universities  which  answered  an  inquiry  by  the  Institute 
for  Public  Service  with  comparable  figures,  grew  from 
187,000  in  1914,  the  school  year  before  the  war,  to 
294,000  in  1919-1920,  the  first  full  school  year  after  the 
war.  If  these  210  colleges  continue  the  same  number 
increases  each  year  they  will  have  471,000  in  1930  and 
83 1 ,000  in  1 950.  If  they  keep  on  growing  at  the  average 
percentage  rate  of  the  last  six  years,  they  will  have  659, 
000  in  1930  and  1,138,000  in  1950! 

None  of  the  proposals  for  taking  care  of  larger  numbers 
of  students  without  proportionately  increasing  educational 
plants — such  as  the  extension  of  night  schools,  afternoon 
and  Saturday  classes  and  university  extension  work  by 
classes,  institutes  and  correspondence — removes  or  de- 
creases the  urgent  need  for  personalityculture.  On  the 
contrary,  every  extension  which  higher  education  makes 
in  its  sphere  of  influence  intensifies  the  demand  for  person- 
ality among  teachers  which  will  inspire  ambition  and 
build  character. 

The  same  forces  that  are  bringing  additional  armies 
of  young  people  into  colleges  are  also  calling  not  only 
for  more  teachers,  but  for  more  teachers  in  proportion  to 
students  and  more  teaching  ability  and  personality  in  each 
teacher. 

INSTITUTE  FOR  PUBLIC  SERVICE 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

The  colleges  and  universities  of  the  United  States 
came  through  the  war  with  flying  colors.  Their  profes- 
sors and  graduates  aided  in  the  field  as  technical  men, 
chemists,  physicists,  engineers,  psychologists,  educators 
and  drillmasters,  while  at  home  colleagues  gave  courses 
in  special  and  general  branches  of  the  service  and  re- 
cruited patriotism. 

The  war  demonstrated  to  the  government  and  to  the 
colleges  as  well  the  necessity  for  commanding,  daring 
and  creative  personalities  in  attaining  victory.  And  now 
it  is  equally  essential  that  we  obtain  great  leaders,  and 
vigorous  and  alert  personalities,  to  fill  the  chairs  of  learn- 
ing in  the  colleges  and  for  training  future  generations  to 
win  the  battles  of  peace. 

Heretofore  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  our  college  facul- 
ties have  over  a  quarter  of  a  billion  classroom  contacts  a 
year  with  students,  our  colleges  have  under-estimated, 
so  they  themselves  say,  the  importance  of  personality 
to  the  success  of  their  faculty  members.  Not  only  that, 
but  the  personality  of  higher  education's  teachers  has 
never  been  adequately  studied.  Very  little  literature 
on  the  subject  exists.  The  only  study  which  the  author 
has  been  able  to  find  has  not  been  printed,  and  whatever 
else  has  been  written  of  it  consists  chiefly  of  passing 
remarks  in  college  presidents'  reports  and  in  pedagogical 
texts,  mainly  deploring  the  lack  of  any  real  knowledge 
on  the  subject. 

The  writer  records  here  the  results  of  classroom  visits 
to  seventy-two  instructors,  who  during  the  summer  sea- 
son of  a  large  university  were  observed  in  the  actual 
process  of  teaching.  These  reports  describe  briefly  the 
living  spirit  and  personality  of  the  teachers,  and  the  at- 
titude and  reactions  of  the  students  during  the  class 
period. 

One  hundred  classes  conducted  by  seventy-two  teach- 
ers of  twenty-five  different  subjects  were  visited  during 


six  weeks.  Thirty-nine  of  the  men  visited  were  observ- 
ed only  when  lecturing,  thirty-one  only  when  holding  rec- 
itation, while  two  were  visited  more  than  once  who  used 
both  methods. 

When  steps  in  the  teaching  process,  method  or  tech- 
nique are  mentioned,  it  will  be  only  to  illustrate  what 
happened  to  a  class  as  the  result  of  the  teacher  person- 
ality. While  high  grade  personalities  were  frequently 
found  using  low  grade  technique,  no  defective  personal- 
ity was  observed  that  could  not  easily  have  been 
strengthened  by  improvements  in  technique. 

When  visiting  the  classes,  all  of  which  were  held  in 
the  morning,  the  gist  of  the  recitation  and  lectures  was 
taken  down  and  notes  made  of  the  appearance,  manner- 
isms, dress,  method  of  teaching  and  personal  qualities 
of  the  professors,  together  with  the  number  of  students 
in  the  class  and  main  facts  about  ventilation,  lighting, 
seating  arrangements  and  other  relevant  classroom  de- 
tails. Then  each  afternoon  these  notes  were  written  out 
as  a  detailed  analysis  of  the  teaching  personality  observed 
in  the  morning.  As  shown  on  page  111  the  seventy- 
two  personalities  fell  into  ten  type  groups. 

The  point  of  view  is  frankly  that  of  a  student.  For 
this  no  apology  is  made  because  it  is  students,  not  trust- 
ees or  presidents  or  benefactors  who1  are  permanently 
helped  or  harmed  by  faculty  personality. 

This  report  is  intended  for  teachers,  students  and 
alumni  of  colleges  and  universities  and  for  all  other  per- 
sons interested  in  securing  the  highest  standards  of 
personality  in  America's  teaching  force,  particularly  in 
higher  education.  Teacher  personality  can  be  selected 
as  easily  as  seed  corn  and  can  be  consciously  improved 
as  easily  as  can  student  personality. 

DAVID  E.  BERG 

f 

Philadelphia 
Nov.  15,  1920 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION  3 

PREFACE  5 

I   COLLEGE  CLASSROOM  CONTACTS  9 

II   PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS — 

FIRST  Two  DAYS  1 1 

III  Low  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  27 

IV  PERSONALITIES  PLUS  49 
V   PERSONALITY  AND  TEACHER  TRAINING  69 

VI  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  CLASSIFIED  81 

VII  CANDLE  POWER  OF  TEACHER 

PERSONALITY  89 

VIII  B  T  U's  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  97 

IX  KILOWATTS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  1 03 

X  TEN  GRADES  OF  TEACHING  ABILITY  1 09 
XI  NEXT  STEPS  IN  PERSONALITYCULTURE  1 19 


Analyzing  Personality 

Pratt  Institute  requires  from  each 
instructor  for  each  student  a  per- 
sonality impression  with  a  list  of 
weak  points,  strong  points,  and 
needs. 

Miami  University's  president  keeps 
a  character  and  personality  record 
of  each  student. 

Capacity  analysis  is  an  art  at  Car- 
negie Institute  of  Technology  and 
Cincinnati's  engineering  college. 

Minnesota  notes  each  instructor's 
special  aptitudes,  kinds  of  student 
attracted,  reputation  for  teaching 
with  faculty  and  students,  and 
whether  a  high  or  low  marker. 

Personalityculture  will  everywhere 
follow  personality  analysis. 


CHAPTER  I 


CLASSROOM  CONTACTS—  250  MILLION  A  YEAR 

America's  400,000  college  students  spend  from  15  to 
30  hours  per  week  for  36  weeks  in  classroom  or  labora- 
tory. This  means  250  million  contacts  with  instructors 
in  a  regular  college  year,  and  over  one  billion  during  the 
four  years  constituting  a  college  generation.  Classroom 
contact  thus  assumes  an  enormous  significance. 

Of  the  various  activities  which  occupy  the  time  of  the 
college  student,  such  as  attending  classes,  reading, 
sleeping  and  eating,  attending  social  and  athletic  affairs, 
it  is  only  that  of  the  first,  attending  classes,  lectures, 
recitations  and  laboratory,  which  means  a  subjection  to 
a  definitely  planned  set  of  influences.  Out  of  the  135 
waking  hours  each  week  of  possible  supervision,  after 
deducting  9  hours  of  sleep  per  day,  only  about  11%  to 
22%  of  the  time  is  actually  spent  under  the  immediate 
personal  supervision  of  faculty  members.  For  16  weeks 
of  vacation  the  student  is  almost  wholly  free  from  all 
college  influence,  so  that  of  the  whole  calendar  year's 
time,  only  from  8%  to  16%  is  spent  under  direct  class- 
room influence.  Yet  this  alone  amounts  to  a  quarter 
billion  sessions  of  one  to  two  hours  where  learner  and 
teacher  meet,  the  one  to  grow  and  the  other  to  help. 

This  daily  contact  of  professor  and  student  is  higher 
education's  opportunity  to  exhibit  personality  to  its 
400,000  students.  Obviously  it  behooves  college  facul- 
ties to  make  these  contacts  as  significant  and  impressive 
as  possible.  Obviously,  too,  professors  should  be  men 
and  women  of  inspiring  personality,  who  are  also  mas- 
ters of  the  art  of  teaching.  To  determine  how  effective 


10  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

were  the  classroom  exercises  of  seventy-two  university 
instructors,  chosen  from  the  catalogue  without  previous 
contact  with  them,  is  the  main  concern  of  this  study. 

Only  those  particular  traits  of  personality  are  portrayed 
which  are  directly  related  to  the  teaching  power  of  the 
instructors.  To  help  the  reader  approach  these  person- 
ality pictures  as  the  writer  approached  them  after  being 
out  of  college  but  a  few  years,  the  personality  portraits 
are  first  given  of  those  teachers  who  were  visited  during 
the  first  two  days  of  the  summer  school  session  when  by 
common  consent  teacher  personality  should  be  at  its  best. 

For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


CHAPTER  II 
PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS—FIRST  TWO  DAYS 

It  was  a  bright,  cool  summer  morning,  this  first  day 
of  the  summer  session.  From  the  eminence  upon  which 
the  university  was  situated,  one  obtained  a  panoramic 
view  of  beautiful  scenery,  which  with  the  keen,  eager 
air  was  exhilarating  to  both  mind  and  body.  One  stepped 
into  the  classroom  prepared  for  a  swift  and  daring  in- 
tellectual chase. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  1 — Type  9 

A  gray-bearded  man,  with  furtive  eyes  like  those  of  a 
startled  squirrel,  was  giving  a  course  in  grammar.  His 
body  and  his  face  were  small  and  thin,  his  eyes  and 
voice  were  dull. 

He  stuttered  somewhat,  but  it  was  a  stuttering  not  of 
the  vocal  organs,  but  of  the  brain  itself.  To  cover  the 
holes  and  rents  in  the  texture  of  his  ideas,  he  used  great 
long  "uhs,"  at  the  rate  of  twelve  to  sixteen  per  minute. 
He  rarely  started  a  sentence  correctly,  he  usually  went 
back  to  start  it  over,  repeated  the  first  phrase  two  or 
three  times,  then  tottered  off.  The  progress  of  his  ideas 
was  like  that  of  an  old  man  trying  to  scale  a  steep  ascent ; 
a  step,  a  pause,  a  step,  a  slip;  halting,  feeble,  painfully 
slow.  The  auditor's  first  flush  of  expectant  exhilaration 
changed  swiftly  to  a  sense  of  oppressive  tedium. 

Although  he  had  probably  given  this  course  of  gram- 
mar fifty  times,  he  was  dependent  upon  his  notes  for  the 
definitions  he  wished  his  students  to  learn.  His  lecture 
proved  to  be  a  carnival  of  definitions,  for  he  defined  phon- 


• 


12  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

etics,  phonology,  grammar,  art,  science,  descriptive,  his- 
torical and  comparative  grammar  and  many  other  every 
day  terms.  They  were  definitions  which  most  of  his 
hearers  could  have  given  off  hand,  and  need  not  have 
read,  as  he  did,  from  a  manuscript,  for  his  class  consisted 
of  twenty-seven  students,  most  of  whom  had  taught. 
Nine  of  them  were  middle-aged.  To  all,  this  flood  of  de- 
finitions must  have  been  very  tedious.  Had  he  tried  to 
picture  their  needs,  he  would  have  used  a  different  method. 

He  had  no  charm,  no  sweetness,  no  wit,  no  enthusiasm, 
and  no  originality.  His  diction  was  commonplace,  al- 
though he  was  a  teacher  of  English,  and  his  ideas  were 
platitudes.  He  lacked  force  and  animation.  His  whole 
personality  was  as  colorless  as  ashes.  He  seemed  strick- 
en with  a  chronic  catalepsis,  which  had  frozen  his  emo- 
tions and  feelings  and  had  stiffened  all  suppleness  of 
thought. 

Not  once  during  the  hour  did  he  call  on  anyone  for 
suggestions  or  information  about  experiences  and  prob- 
lems, try  to  enlist  the  cooperation  of  the  class,  or  attempt 
to  determine  what  was  going  on  in  the  students'  minds. 
Nothing  occurred  that  gave  promise  of  life,  of  fresh 
knowledge,  of  inspiration;  everything  said  and  done 
boded  a  six  weeks  trip  across  an  intellectual  Sahara. 
The  bell  rang  and  the  sepulchral  charm  was  broken. 
The  students  grabbed  hats  and  books,  and  started  for 
the  door. 

"Take  the  first  nineteen  pages  of  Sweet",  called  the 
teacher,  straining  his  thin  voice  almost  to  the  cracking 
point.  The  class,  unheeding,  poured  out  into  the  hall. 

Teacher  Personality  No.   2 — Type   6 

The  next  was  a  class  in  the  "Nature  and  Function  of 
Play."  The  title,  at  least,  gave  promise  of  something 
interesting  and  enlivening.  A  tall,  angular  man  stalked 
awkwardly  into  the  room  and  sunk  his  body  behind  the 
desk.  He  must  have  been  mostly  legs,  for  he  almost 
disappeared  from  sight  after  he  had  seated  himself.  Sud- 


PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS  13 

denly  his  tall,  lanky  form  shot  into  the  air,  and  he  seti 
about  distributing  mimeographed  lists  of  texts  and  read- 
ing assignments.  Then  he  again  cleverly  concealed  the 
major  portion  of  his  anatomy  behind  the  bulwark  of  his 
desk,  where  he  remained  impregnably  entrenched  during 
the  whole  hour. 

He  started  to  speak  in  a  hard,  rattling  voice  that  was 
much  too  loud  for  the  size  of  the  room  and  echoed  and 
re-echoed  with  a  confusing  din.  He  spoke  of  the  atten- 
tion devoted  to  play  in  biology,  in  folklore,  in  education, 
in  works  on  the  theory  of  evolution,  in  social  reform,  in 
institutions,  in  churches,  and  gave  examples  of  activities 
that  placed  emphasis  on  play  and  recreation.  He  waxed 
eloquent  on  this  theme,  but  the  class  did  not  melt  into  a 
common  sea  of  enthusiasm.  They  remained  cold  and 
inert.  Had  he  felt  the  importance  of  mutual  sympathy 
between  teacher  and  student,  he  could  hardly  have  coiV 
tinued  his  lecture  without  opening  the  channels  of  sym- 
pathy and  comprehension. 

The  teacher's  enthusiasm  was  based  on  many  years  of 
experience  with  the  subject.  He  made  sweeping  state- 
ments, one  after  the  other,  which  were  too  strange,  too 
radical  for  immediate  assimilation  by  the  students.  Most 
of  them  had  not  heard  of  play  in  this  sense  before, 
consequently  they  had  no  body  of  knowledge,  had  no  in- 
ternal fuel  to  be  ignited  by  the  flame  of  his  enthusiasm. 
The  class,  after  its  first  start  of  interest,  was  unable  to 
gather  headway  as  fast  as  the  teacher,  was  left  far  be- 
hind in  the  race,  and  lapsed  into  inanition. 

His  manner  was  artificial  and  over-strained.  His  eyes 
had  a  forced  brightness  and  alertness;  he  flashed  them 
from  one  part  of  the  room  to  the  other,  but  they  appeared 
to  see  nothing.  There  was  a  false  emphasis  in  his  voice 
and  an  exaggerated  leaning  forward  over  his  desk.  His 
attempts  at  humor  fell  flat.  The  impression  he  gave  was 
this:  here  was  a  man  without  the  essential  quality  of 
personality,  mechanically  overdoing  the  motions  of  pos- 
sessing one,  and  trying  to  "put  across"  something  he 
did  not  possess.  He  was  like  a  man  who  swims  at  the 
rate  of  one-half  mile  an  hour  trying  to  breast  a  five  mile 


14  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

current.  He  made  no  headway,  but  was  carried  down 
stream.  No  one  in  the  class  seemed  impressed.  The  bell 
rang.  He  then  started  to  call  the  roll  which  consumed 
five  minutes  of  the  students'  time. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  3 — Type  4 

The  next  man  visited  was  giving  a  lecture  course  in 
the  "History  of  the  Renaissance".  He  had  a  considerable 
command  of  his  subject  matter,  possessed  great  ease  of 
manner  and  a  nonchalance,  that,  if  not  an  affectation,  was 
in  strange  contrast  to  his  burly  figure  and  voice.  He 
appeared  conscious  of  his  power,  his  force,  his  success 
and  popularity  with  students.  He  was  conscious  of  it; 
too  conscious  of  it,  as  a  matter  of  fact. 

He  began  a  sentence  with  a  spurt,  and  at  the  begin- 
ning his  speech  was  rapid,  forceful  and  distinct.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  sentence,  his  thick,  heavy  voice  dwindled 
down  to  a  decided  drawl.  His  voice  came  in  fits  and 
starts,  like  sounds  to  one  in  a  fever.  At  first,  the  drawl 
struck  one  as  being  accidental  and  involuntary,  but  later 
one  wondered  if  his  sporadic  drawl  like  the  flabby  pos- 
ture of  his  body,  his  arm  hanging  limply  over  the  back 
of  his  chair,  his  sprawling  limbs,  and  his  chin  drawn  tight 
to  his  neck,  were  part  and  parcel  of  his  whole  histrionic 
makeup  and  attitudinizing. 

He  was  likable,  but  not  inspiring.  He  did  not  illumin- 
ate the  halls  of  the  mind,  nor  did  he  spur  his  students  to 
increased  action  and  enthusiastic  effort.  Withal,  how- 
ever, he  was  entertaining.  His  lecture  was  studded  with 
gems  of  wit  like  these : 

"We  are  going  to  evaluate,"  he  said,  preening 

himself  like   a  peacock,   "evaluate,  isn't  that  a 

lovely  word?" 

"Dates    in     history    always    attract     students; 

they  are  like  honey  to  a  bee." 

"Leave  out  the  details  in  taking  notes.     Take 

down  the  generalizations;  unrelated  details  are 

a  weariness  to  the  flesh." 


PERSONALITY   CLOSE-UPS  15 

"He   was   a   most   omnivorous   reader,   but  his 
head  was  like  a  sieve,  nothing  remained." 
"Taking  notes  checks  your  natural  impetuosity 
in  reading." 

As  he  continued  talking,  his  self-conscious  vanity,  his 
indolence  and  cocksureness  provoked  a  feeling  almost  of 
contempt.  To  one  who  had  expected  a  keen,  straining 
spirit,  it  was  a  disappointment  to  find  an  intellectual 
voluptuary,  dallying  with  the  pretty  phrases  of  the  con- 
firmed wit.  He  evinced  a  disdain  for  mental  exertion ; 
the  deeper  powers  of  his  mind  sprawled  out  in  much  the 
same  fashion  as  his  limbs. 

Here  was  a  course  rich  in  material  treating  of  inspir- 
ing men  and  ideas,  with  the  brightest  of  possibilities  to 
illumine  and  exalt  the  youthful  mind.  But  the  first  thing 
the  teacher  did  was  to  draw  a  sooty  finger  across  the7 
glorious  picture  which  each  student  in  his  imagination 
had  painted  of  the  age  of  Renaissance.  His  preliminary 
remarks,  flippant  and  sarcastic,  cheapened  the  student's 
conceptions  of  that  golden  age,  so  productive  of  spirit- 
ual wealth  to  humanity,  and  degraded  the  spirit  of  his 
whole  course.  As  he  lectured  in  his  studied  tone  of  bore- 
dom about  the  great  Dante,  one  noted  involuntarily, 
with  a  distinct  sense  of  pain,  the  difference  between  the 
soaring  spirit  of  the  poet  and  the  affectation,  the  disdain, 
and  the  vanity  of  the  teacher. 

Here  were  no  incisive,  startling  flashes  of  remote  re- 
semblances, no  profound  principles,  no  originality  of 
ideas;  just  a  fatuous  indulgence  in  platitudes  and  the 
obvious,  the  pitter-patter  of  the  drawing-room  wit.  He 
was  a  man  of  unusual  ability  and  attainments,  who  had 
made  his  mark,  but  who  was  resting  on  his  oars  content 
to  drift  with  the  current  of  his  reputation  as  an  enter- 
tainer and  stimulator. 

That  he  interested  and  attracted  the  students  could 
not  be  denied.  But  was  his  attitude  of  nonchalance  and 
cynicism  one  that  should  be  imitated  by  the  students? 
College  students  are  all  too  ready  to  assume  this  air  and 
attitude  of  superiority.  Would  not  imitation  levy  tob 
heavy  a  toll  on  society,  or  if  this  teacher's  value  consisted 


16  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

in  warning  the  students  of  the  undesirable,  is  not  this 
dangerous  procedure? 

Teacher  Personality  No.  4 — Type  1 

The  last  class  visited  the  first  day  was  that  of  a  mathe- 
matics teacher,  later  learned  to  be  well-liked  and  admired 
by  his  students.  Exactly  as  the  gong  sounded,  he  strode 
into  the  room.  In  a  few  seconds  he  had  called  the  roll. 
While  doing  so,  his  sharp  eyes  singled  out  the  student 
who  answered.  He  appeared  to  connect  name  with  per- 
son instantly.  One  felt  intuitively  that  his  mind  re- 
tained the  impression  permanently.  His  first  words  were 
electrical  in  their  effect.  They  were  common  enough 
intrinsically,  but  they  revealed  the  acumen  and  energy 
of  a  powerful  personality.  Every  move  he  made,  every 
statement  he  uttered,  expressed  energy,  resolution  and 
keenness.  In  five  minutes,  every  student  must  have 
felt  that  he  was  every  inch  a  man  and  in  addition  a 
mathematician  with  a  profound  and  ready  command  of 
his  subject. 

He  talked  without  notes.  As  he  walked  from  one  part 
of  the  room  to  the  other,  each  head  in  the  room  turned 
in  his  direction,  and  his  eyes,  as  they  swept  from  student 
to  student  appeared  to  fix  in  turn  each  pair  of  eyes  in 
the  room.  In  a  few  minutes,  he  had  given  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  whole  field  of  mathematics,  and  showed  how 
algebra  was  related  to  the  other  branches  of  mathematics 
and  to  the  practical  sciences.  He  told  the  Hindoo  and 
Chinese  conceptions  of  mathematics  and  the  relation  of 
algebra  to  the  Greeks'  geometry.  He  emphasized  the 
necessity  of  mastering  the  elementary  processes  in  al- 
gebra: to  actually  perform  the  operations,  for  their  mas- 
tery is  as  essential  to  the  student's  grasp  of  advanced 
algebra  as  the  violinist's  mastery  of  technique  of  his  in- 
strument is  to  his  ability  to  interpret  great  music.  Imme- 
diately in  the  students'  minds,  the  simple,  routine  opera- 
tions of  algebra  were  invested  with  a  significance  never 
before  suspected. 

One  gained  the  impression  that  he  was  firm  and  exact- 


PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS  17 

ing,  that  he  demanded  precision  and  diligence,  and  a 
high  standard  of  acquisition.  At  the  same  time,  he  ap- 
peared kindly  and  sympathetically  penetrating  in  his 
judgment  of  human  nature.  He  went  to  the  blackboard 
to  illustrate  his  remarks  and  called  on  various  students 
individually  and  on  the  class  as  a  whole  to  direct  the 
work.  In  a  short  while  he  had  enlisted  the  hearty  co- 
operation of  the  class,  had  the  class  thinking  as  one  mind, 
alert  and  eager  to  anticipate  the  next  step  and  next  oper- 
ation. The  thirty  individual  members  were  fused  into 
an  organic  working  unit. 

The  whole  impression  was  that  of  a  keen,  invigorating 
mind,  so  swift  and  incisive  that  it  almost  deprived  one 
of  breath.  The  man  seemed  the  embodiment  of  a  swift 
moving  force  that  spurred  his  students  to  great  effort. 
His  wit  was  incisive  and  searching,  a  wit  that  scintillated 
and  illuminated.  Here  were  charm,  humor,  kindliness, 
resourcefulness,  penetration,  energy  and  other  qualities 
that  make  for  a  dynamic  personality  and  a  brilliant 
teacher. 

This  last  class  exercise  was  an  excellent  demonstration 
of  the  results  which  a  skillful  teacher  can  accomplish 
within  the  space  of  an  hour.  The  teacher  because  of 
his  discriminating  and  comprehensive  command  of  the 
subject  had,  in  this  period  of  time,  made  a  definite  con- 
tribution to  the  student's  supply  of  knowledge.  From 
the  very  beginning  his  great  enthusiasm  and  forcefulness 
had  aroused  the  interest  of  the  students  in  the  subject. 
He  wasted  no  time  in  putting  them  to  work,  and  his  de- 
cisiveness, resolution  and  exactingness  made  them  real- 
ize that  much  hard  and  conscientious  work  was  in  store 
for  them,  which  was  to  be  productive  of  definite  results. 
Moreover,  it  had  been  a  great  pleasure,  a  mental  and 
physical  exhilaration,  to  sit  in  his  class. 

Compare  this  last  with  the  first  three  teachers:  the 
first  man  was  unbearably  stupid  and  tedious ;  the  second 
was  a  loud-voiced  ranter  who  distressed  one's  ears  and 
sense  of  truth ;  the  third  was  an  indolent  egotist,  amusing, 
but  provocative  of  resentment  and  contempt.  From 
the  first  man  the  students  could  gain  only  un- 


18  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

serviceable  and  deadening  facts  and  methods.  The  second 
and  third  were  men  of  ability,  but  their  effectiveness  was 
greatly  handicapped  by  remediable  faults  of  personality. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  5 — Type  3 

The  first  class  visited  on  the  second  day  was  one  in 
philosophy,  called  "Man  and  Nature".  Seventy  one  stu- 
dents were  present;  about  an  equal  number  of  men  and 
women. 

A  short,  dark  man  passed  rapidly  up  the  aisle  from 
the  back  of  the  room.  The  laughter  and  chattering  of  the 
class  subsided  instantly.  Every  face  turned  to  the  desk 
with  that  expectancy  which  characterizes  the  rise  of  a 
curtain  on  an  absorbing  play. 

"I  shall  speak  today  of  the  arguments  for  evolution," 
he  began.  His  voice  was  somewhat  thick,  choked  and 
roughened,  and  his  enunciation  was  marred  by  a  kind  of 
lisp.  His  forehead  was  rounded  and  massive. 

"There  are  four  arguments  for  evolution;  first,  argu- 
ments from  embryology  ;  second,  those  from  morphology  ; 
third,  those  from  geographical  distribution ;  and  last, 
the  arguments  from  paleontology." 

He  spoke  slowly  and  deliberately.  Contrary  to  one's 
anticipations  from  his  appearance  and  voice,  every  word 
could  be  heard  distinctly.  In  two  sentences  he  had  out- 
lined the  plan  of  his  lecture  for  the  hour  and  every  one 
knew  what  part  to  expect.  It  would  be  easy  to  follow 
the  whole  lecture,  whether  one  took  notes  or  not. 

"The  criticism  made  against  these  arguments  is  that 
they  rest  on  merely  circumstantial  evidence,"  he  con- 
tinued. "But  all  kinds  of  proof  dealing  with  matter  or 
with  facts  are  based  on  circumstantial  evidence,  and 
evolution  is  the  simplest  conclusion  from  all  the  great 
mass  of  evidence  that  exists." 

He  then  gave  the  arguments  for  evolution  from  em- 
bryology, and  spoke  of  the  presence  of  rudimentary  or- 
gans in  man.  "The  evolutionist  asks  why  all  these  pe- 
culiar and  unnecessary  organs  and  tissues  develop  and 


PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS  19 

disappear  in  the  embryo  if  they  are  not  vestiges  and 
signs  of  previous  stages  in  the  history  of  the  race.  The 
creationist  answers  that  God  is  all-wise  and  that  his 
motives  are  inscrutable.  Now,  I  don't  ask  you  to  decide 
one  way  or  the  other;  I  shall  not  impose  my  beliefs  on 
you.  I  shall  merely  present  you  the  facts;  you  may 
draw  your  own  conclusions." 

Despite  the  blandness  of  his  words,  there  was  a  note 
of  raillery  in  the  tone  of  this  voice  that  bit  sharply  and 
deeply.  It  implied  that  if  you  did  not  believe  in  evol- 
tion  after  he  had  stated  the  arguments  for  it  no  one 
could  have  much  respect  for  your  intelligence. 

His  lecture  proceeded  in  a  clean-cut  methodical  man- 
ner. He  possessed  a  ready  command  of  his  subject;  he 
drove  his  principles  home  with  great  force  and  selected 
examples  and  illustrations  that  were  interesting  and  val- 
uable in  themselves.  His  mind  was  supple,  prolific  and 
logical.  He  also  showed  considerable  skill  as  a  draughts- 
man. Before  the  class  hour  he  had  made  some  admirable 
chalk  drawings  on  the  blackboard,  illustrating  the  re- 
semblance of  the  forelimbs  of  various  animals, — fish, 
bird,  seal,  and  whale — to  those  of  man.  The  whole  lec- 
ture was  pointed,  suggestive  and  extremely  interesting. 
It  must  have  made  a  profound  impression  on  minds  hear- 
ing its  information  for  the  first  time. 

The  teacher  was  alert,  ingenious  .and  possessed  great 
charm  of  manner,  and  a  ready,  sympathetic  wit.  The 
class  was  keyed  to  a  high  degree  of  interest,  for  during  the 
lecture  every  student  strained  forward  in  his  seat,  to 
catch  the  next  phrase.  A  close  bond  of  sympathy  and 
understanding  had  already  by  the  second  day  sprung  up 
between  the  class  and  the  teacher.  But  again  and  again 
appeared  this  fine  vein  of  biting  irony,  when  comparing 
explanations  of  the  various  arguments  offered  by  the  evo- 
lutionist with  those  advanced  by  the  creationist.  Appar- 
ently the  teacher  realized  the  tremendous  disturbances 
that  his  message  would  set  up  in  many  listeners'  minds, 
and  slipped  into  this  ironic  mood  possibly  to  leaven  and 
circumvent  their  seriousness.  This  sharp,  delicate  note 
of  raillery  marred  somewhat  the  impression  of  his  lecture, 


20  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

for  it  denoted  a  certain  lack  of  that  sustained  and  elevated 
attitude  which  the  seriousness  of  the  subject  demanded. 
Moreover,  his  diction  also  lacked  elevation,  so  that  the 
effect  was  not  clean-cut  and  gripping  as  it  might  easily 
have  been.  On  the  whole,  however,  his  was  a  personality 
of  exceptional  power. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  6 — Type  4 

The  sixth  class  consisted  of  eighty-five  students.  It 
was  a  course  termed  "The  High  School  Recitation",  in- 
tended for  high  school  teachers  or  prospective  high  school 
teachers. 

The  gong  sounded  and  a  man  projected  himself  into 
the  room  at  an  amazing  speed  and  started  talking  with  an 
incredible  rapidity.  The  suddenness  of  this  assault  of 
sound  upon  the  ears  was  momentarily  confusing. 

"To  keep  a  record  of  your  attendance,  I  shall  ask  you 
to  write  your  names  on  slips  of  paper  and  hand  them  to 
my  assistant  at  the  door  as  you  pass  out  at  the  end  of 
the  hour.  If  you  have  any  questions  you  want  me  to 
answer,  write  them  on  the  same  slip."  These  statements 
came  out  in  one  continuous  roll. 

"I  will  read  and  answer  the  first  question.  'Don't  you 
think  that  one  can  get  as  much  enjoyment  out  of  studying 
a  book  as  merely  reading  it?'  Yes,  there  can  be  an  en- 
joyment of  saying  the  multiplication  table  rapidly,  or 
translating  a  difficult  passage  of  Latin." 

"Second  question :  'Parker  says  that  an  old  person  can 
learn  a  foreign  language  more  rapidly  than  a  young  per- 
son. Is  this  true?'  Parker  is  on  delicate  ground.  No 
one  has  proved  this.  Parker  wants  to  insist  that  old 
people  can  also  learn  languages.  You  at  your  age  can 
learn  better  because  you  have  more  control  over  your 
attention.  The  argument  for  learning  a  foreign  language 
in  youth  is  a  matter  of  emphasis." 

Then  followed  a  series  of  discursive  remarks  on  the 
teaching  of  Latin  in  high  school,  on  the  value  of  language 
as  affording  intellectual  training  and  on  politics  in  schools- 


PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS  21 

"We  don't  know  anything  about  it ;  no  exact  experiments 
are  available  to  test  the  higher  processes  of  the  mind," 
was  his  parting  shot  to  the  second  question! 

He  read  question  after  question,  answering  them  as  he 
read  them.  "Is  Latin  more  valuable  than  manual  train- 
ing?" "What  is  the  use  of  drawing  and  music?"  "When 
is  the  time  to  help  a  child  who  is  experimenting?"  "At 
the  point  of  discouragement  or  at  the  point  of  confusion," 
answered  the  talker  in  answer  to  this  last  question. 

Then  he  branched  off  into  a  discussion  of  the  evils  of 
repetition,  the  folly  of  trying  to  pump  something  out  of 
empty  heads,  and  of  teachers  then  dropping  into  the  level 
of  scolding.  A  teacher  should  be  able  to  detect  which 
pupil  will  be  able  to  contribute  something  of  value  to 
the  recitation.  Otherwise  he  makes  a  living  sacrifice  of 
the  best  pupils. 

Then  he  told  the  story  of  a  teacher  scolding  a  boy 
who  apparently  knew  nothing.  "At  your  age  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  earning  his  living,"  said  the  teacher.  "At 
your  age  Abe  Lincoln  was  president  of  the  United 
States,"  retorted  the  boy.  "Teachers  demand  too  much 
verbal  reproduction.  We  should  stretch  our  judgments 
over  a  larger  span.  We  are  too  much  interested  in  a 
continual  garrulous  self-analysis,"  and  so  on  for  forty- 
five  minutes. 

Five  minutes  before  the  hour  was  over,  he  had  run 
through  the  questions  and  had  started  his  lecture  proper, 
"How  do  we  get  our  educational  ideals?" 

Nothing  but  a  stenographic  report  could  do  justice  to 
this  performance.  His  talk  was  an  inextricable  jungle  of 
words  and  phrases,  of  half  formulated  and  blind  alley 
theories.  Ideas  followed  each  other  by  the  merest  acci- 
dent of  association,  and  not  because  they  had  any  logical 
bearing  on  the  subject  under  discussion.  Sentences  were 
broken  off  like  faults  in  a  geological  formation  and  entire- 
ly unrelated  ideas  placed  in  juxtaposition.  Ideas  were 
poured  forth  like  the  eruption  of  a  volcano,  the  good  with 
the  bad,  prejudices  and  personal  opinion  grating  on  ac- 
cepted, rationalized  principles.  His  talk  possessed  neither 
lucidity  nor  coherence. 


22  PERSONALITTCULTURB 

He  talked  like  a  mad  hurricane  in  great  rolling  periods 
which  ended  only  when  his  breath  gave  out.  His  voice 
was  hard  and  raucous,  a  domineering,  egotistical  voice. 
He  possessed  the  characteristic  squint  of  conceit,  that 
inward  turned  glance  of  a  man  who  hears  others'  ideas 
only  as  confused  reverberations  of  his  own.  His  nature 
bore  the  ineffaceable  stamp  of  the  spectacular  and  the 
exaggerated.  His  highly-charged  mind,  his  torrent  of 
words  and  distorted  ideas,  his  gusts  of  emotion  and  over- 
towering  egotism  produced  an  effect  both  fascinating  and 
repelling.  The  class  listened  stunned  and  spellbound. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  7 — Type  10 

"Public  School  Music"  was  the  name  of  the  seventh 
class.  Twenty-two  women  and  two  forlorn  looking  men 
comprised  the  class.  The  course  was  intended  to  train 
teachers  of  public  school  music.  The  teacher  turned  out 
to  be  a  tall  young  woman,  who  dragged  herself  slowly 
across  the  room  and  collapsed  wearily  into  her  chair. 
Her  voice,  expression  and  movements  were  listless. 

"I  want  to  give  a  few  criticisms  of  your  practice  teaching 
last  time,"  she  drawled.  "I  shall  speak  of  them  as  I 
think  of  them."  These  consisted  of  a  few  straggling  re- 
marks, rank  vagrants  drummed  up  from  remote  corners 
of  her  brain,  ludicrously  shallow  and  trite.  Two  women 
of  considerable  maturity  took  issue  with  some  of  her 
wilder  criticisms,  and  after  a  lively  encounter,  forced  the 
teacher  to  retract  some  and  modify  others  of  these  criti- 
cisms. 

Her  thoughts  had  apparently  been  doomed  to  the 
same  fate  as  the  Wandering  Jew.  She  talked  as  though 
her  consciousness  and  tongue  had  long  parted  company. 
Occasionally  her  gaze  would  grow  abstracted,  and  her 
face  would  contract  into  a  puzzled  frown  for  no  apparent 
reason.  Then  she  would  make  an  effort  to  collect  her 
thoughts,  would  suddenly  straighten  herself,  sit  bolt  up- 
right, and  direct  hef  gaze  to  the  class.  This  performance 


PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS  23 

dragged  on  for  fifteen  minutes  with  a  generous  propor- 
tion of  repetition. 

After  this  followed  a  lamentable  attempt  to  conduct  a 
recitation.  Apparently  she  had  assigned  chapters  or  sec- 
tions in  several  texts  on  psychology,  and  the  recitation 
was  to  consist  of  a  discussion  of  them.  She  called  on 
the  students  to  state  what  the  various  authors  had  said, 
not  specifying  in  regard  to  what  particular  topic.  One 
half  of  the  students  were  not  prepared  and  those  who 
did  respond  proceeded  to  read  their  answers  indistinctly 
and  almost  inaudibly  from  their  notebooks,  so  that  when 
their  murmurs  had  ceased,  few  knew  what  had  been  said. 
The  teacher  seemed  to  know  even  less  about  what  was 
being  said  than  anyone  else. 

It  gradually  developed  that  the  assignments  referred 
to  certain  principles  of  habit  formation.  As  these  hap- 
hazard contributions  to  the  recitation  straggled  in,  no 
attempt  was  made  to  sum  up  or  relate  them  to  the  main 
topic,  no  well  defined  principles  were  evolved,  and  no 
efforts  were  made  to  indicate  the  relation  of  the  principles 
of  habit  formation  to  the  learning  or  teaching  of  public 
school  music. 

One  woman  who  appeared  to  know  something  of  the 
subject  spoke  of  a  certain  statement  that  William  James 
has  made.  "Oh,  I  don't  know  anything  about  that,"  said 
the  teacher,  sharply.  "I  have  just  read  the  two  chapters 
I  assigned." 

When  listening  to  a  student's  garbled  recitation,  she 
would  refer  constantly  to  her  own  notes  to  check  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  student,  occasionally  reading  haltingly  from 
them.  She  had  absolutely  no  sense  of  the  relative  value 
of  the  matter  that  the  students  read  from  their  notes. 

She  lacked  logical  power,  alertness,  and  possessed 
merely  a  superficial  acquaintance  with  a  few  trite, 
oft-repeated  principles.  She  could  not  even  focus  her 
own  attention  upon  the  work,  much  less  hold  the  attention 
of  her  students.  The  visitor  discovered  later  that  the 
teacher  had  never  taught  public  school  music  in  her  life. 
And  she  was  teaching  others  how  to  teach  it! 


24  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

Teacher  Personality  No.  8 — Type  1 

The  last  class  visited  the  second  day  was  a  huge  one 
of  over  two  hundred  teacher-students,  whose  electing  a 
course  in  such  numbers  guaranteed  some  kind  of  strong 
personality  in  store.  The  room  was  full  to  overflowing; 
several  of  the  men  students  had  perched  themselves  on 
the  window-sills  and  many  of  the  others  were  standing. 
It  was  a  class  in  Social  Education. 

A  rather  short,  well-built  man  entered  the  room  and 
took  his  place  behind  the  desk,  alert  and  smiling.  His 
bearing  and  movements  indicated  poise  and  ease  of  man- 
ner. He  spoke  a  few  words  about  the  electric  fans  and 
the  necessity  of  ventilating  the  room.  Then  he  noticed 
the  students  perched  in  the  window-sills.  "Is  it  really 
and  genuinely  comfortable  up  there?"  he  asked.  The 
class  broke  out  into  a  hearty  laugh. 

The  speaker  began  to  speak  slowly  in  a  smooth,  even 
voice  that  had  good  carrying  power.  The  day's  subject 
was  "The  Various  Aspects  of  Sociability."  He  spoke 
of  the  moral  consciousness  of  our  nation,  and  asked  if 
it  were  declining  or  advancing.  His  own  views  were 
optimistic. 

As  the  talk  continued  on  freedom  of  speech,  friendship, 
social  cooperation,  etc.,  stories  and  witticisms  that  grew 
out  of  the  situation  would  be  followed  by  waves  of  spon- 
taneous laughter.  His  alertness  and  resourcefulness,  his 
keen  realisation  of  the  effect  of  carefully  chosen  words, 
his  adaptation  to  the  students'  psychology,  his  good  hu- 
mor and  spontaneous  wit  gave  him  a  power  that  riveted 
the  attention  of  the  whole  class. 

One  thing  that  contributed  to  arousing  their  interest 
was  the  unexpectedness  of  the  things  he  said  and  did. 
The  "what-will-happen-next"  attitude  was  aroused,  the 
students  stood  on  the  tiptoe  of  attention  to  catch  his  next 
word.  Nor  did  he  by  any  means  depend  solely  upon  his 
"jolts"  to  produce  interest.  The  reason  was  partly  that, 
but  it  lay  deeper.  The  subject  matter  itself  was  pro- 
foundly interesting,  he  took  a  novel  point  of  view,  his 
attitude  was  sincere  and  socially  minded,  and  his  com- 


PERSONALITY  CLOSE-UPS  25 

ments  were  penetrating  and  illuminating. 

Then  too,  the  lecturer  had  mastered  a  unique  kind  of 
technique,  a  technique  that  was  so  highly  finished  as  to 
appear  spontaneous.  For  example,  he  used  the  rhetori- 
cal question  often  with  great  success.  He  would  pro- 
pound the  question,  pause  a  moment  until  two  hundred 
students  had  formulated  answers  in  their  own  minds, 
and  then  snap  off  the  answer.  Sometimes  he  would 
raise  a  question  and  ask  for  an  oral  vote.  There  was  a 
subtle  air  of  flattery  in  the  manner  that  the  teacher  called 
for  the  votes  of  the  class.  It  was  as  though  he  suspended 
judgment  until  the  class  had  rendered  its  verdict. 

Here  was  a  man  whose  appearances  were  followed  by 
hand-clappings  and  cheers.  For  fifty  minutes  he  had 
commanded  complete  attention  from  a  class  of  two  hun- 
dred. His  words  were  highly  charged  with  suggestive 
power,  which  set  in  motion  trains  of  thought  and  feelings 
greatly  disproportionate  to  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
words.  It  was  as  though  light,  delicately  sounded  over- 
tones possessed  the  power  of  vibrating  sympathetically 
the  deep  fundamental  tones.  No  visitor  needed  to  be 
informed  that  he  had  seen  a  remarkable  example  of  ar- 
tistic teaching  by  a  strong  personality,  where  an  easy 
command  of  the  subject  was  combined  with  audacity, 
subtlety,  wit,  charm  and  purposefulness. 

Summary,  first  two  days'  visits 

These  first  eight  personality  sketches  include  examples 
of  the  zenith  and  nadir  of  teaching  ability  observed. 
Only  two  other  men  of  the  seventy-two  visited  were  on  a 
par  with  the  fourth  and  eighth  teachers  of  mathematics 
and  education,  although  four  or  five  other  teachers  of 
great  ability  approximated  them.  The  teachers  of  gram- 
mar and  of  public  school  music,  Nos.  1  and  7,  were  among 
the  half  dozen  least  effective  teachers  observed  whose 
teaching  was  clearly  below  "passing  mark". 

The  poor  teaching  power  of  Personalities  Nos.  2,  3,  6, 
was  due  largely  to  faults  of  personality, — coldness,  lack 


26  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

of  insight  and  enthusiasm,  affectation,  bluff,  exaggera- 
tion, etc. — and  only  in  a  smaller  degree  to  bad  teaching 
methods.  To  be  sure,  each  of  these  teachers  could  im- 
prove his  teaching  methods  to  considerable  advantage. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  teachers  whose  person- 
alities seemed  the  most  effective,  Nos.  4,  5,  8,  also  had 
a  greater  mastery  of  the  proper  teaching  methods. 

From  a  reading  of  merely  the  above  sketches,  it  be- 
comes apparent  that  certain  traits  of  personality  and 
teaching  power  are  intimately  related;  that  if  a  teacher 
exhibits  certain  undesirable  qualities  of  personality,  he 
cannot  attain  marked  success  as  a  teacher.  One  trait 
in  particular  seemed  to  characterize  the  effective  teacher 
and  appeared  to  be  lacking  in  the  poor  teacher;  it  was  that 
of  insight,  the  knowledge  of  what  was  going  on  in  the 
students'  minds,  after  first  wanting  to  see,  of  appreciating 
their  difficulties  and  points  of  view.  The  effective  teacher 
adjusted  his  ideas,  diction,  and  methods  to  suit  the  needs 
and  backgrounds  of  his  students.  Enthusiasm,  sympathy, 
charm,  wit,  exactingness,  thoroughness,  logicality,  sin- 
cerity, vision  and  vigor  were  other  desirable  traits  of 
personality  observed. 

Does  the  reader  question  the  desirability,  yes,  the  ur- 
gency, of  having  teacher  personalities  observed  at  work  in 
classrooms  by  college  authorities  who  offer  these  person- 
alities to  students? 


For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


CHAPTER    III 
LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY 

Visits  to  the  classes  revealed  this  interesting  point,  that 
the  classroom  exercise,  whether  lecture  or  recitation, 
brings  out  in  high  relief  for  students  as  well  as  visitors  the 
characteristic  and  fundamental  qualities  of  the  teacher's 
personality.  A  person  in  repose  can  conceal  much,  but 
action  is  a  pitiless  self-revealer,  especially  action  that  is 
bent  upon  the  serious  purpose  of  teaching. 

The  act  of  teaching,  the  contact  of  instructor  and  stu- 
dent, lays  bare  the  great  hidden  powers  of  prolific  and  pro- 
found spirits,  or  reveals  the  emptiness  and  impotence  of 
shallow  natures.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  the  class- 
room some  teachers  seem  freer,  less  reserved  than  in  the 
outside  world,  while  others  appear  to  withdraw  them- 
selves into  a  shell  of  reserve.  To  the  more  expansive 
and  volatile  spirits  the  students'  presence  usually  acts  as 
a  stimulus,  while  to  cold,  unsympathetic  natures,  its  in- 
fluence is  that  of  a  depressant. 

Although  the  proportion  may  be  the  same  in  both 
cases,  oddities,  freakishness  and  exaggerations  seemed 
more  prevalent  in  the  classroom  than  in  ordinary  social 
life.  Peculiarities  of  dress,  affectation  and  faultiness  of 
speech  and  manner,  slovenly  postures  of  the  body,  tardi- 
ness, insincerity,  frivolity,  tediousness,  garrulousness, 
flirting,  salaciousness,  indolence,  cynicism,  rampant  ego- 
tism, arrogance,  superciliousness,  iciness  and  stoniness  of 
manner  were  some  of  the  salient  faults  which  flaunted 
themselves. 

Some  of  the  teachers  were  of  displeasing  or  distressing 
physical  appearance.  Several  appeared  more  careless 
of  their  appearance,  manners,  and  actions  during  the  class 


28 

period  than  one  would  like  to  imagine  them  when  in  the 
privacy  of  their  own  homes. 

In  some  cases  one  could  plainly  see  that  the  students 
were  greatly  handicapped  in  their  work  because  of  the 
more  glaring  faults  of  the  teacher's  personality,  and  in 
many  cases  lesser  faults  must  have  proved  discouraging 
and  distracting  influences.  The  following  fifteen  per- 
sonality portraits  will  illustrate  some  of  the  idiosyn- 
cracies,  oddities  of  manners  and  appearance  and  weak- 
nesses and  inadequacies  of  low  level  personalities  among 
instructors. 

Some  men  of  nimble  wits  and  lively  imaginations 
allow  their  minds  to  run  wild,  like  engines  stripped  of 
governors.  The  two  instructors  next  described  are  ex- 
amples of  this. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  9 — Type  5 

A  French  class  was  a  miniature  Babel.  It  seemed  an 
Americanized  version  of  a  Chinese  school.  The  teacher 
possessed  a  volatile  mind  whose  safety  valve  showed  it- 
self in  a  continuous  running  fire  of  persiflage.  While  he 
directed  a  few  volleys  to  students  in  one  part  of  the  room, 
those  out  of  range  set  up  a  number  of  minor  vortices  of 
chattering.  The  teacher  was  tall  and  stout,  unctious  in 
manner,  fair-haired  and  of  a  florid  complexion.  The 
nimbleness  of  his  tongue  was  in  startling  contrast  to  his 
portly  appearance  and  listless  posture.  Only  the  surface 
of  his  mind  was  agitated,  the  deeper  currents. — if  such 
existed — were  as  inert  as  his  body. 

"Perfect  as  I  get  it !"  was  his  response  to  nearly  every 
student's  answer.  Sometimes  an  excited  buzz  of  protest 
arose.  The  rest  of  the  class  had  not  heard  his  last  ques- 
tion or  failed  to  understand  the  student's  answer  above 
the  steady  hum  of  their  own  voices.  This  sign  of  attention 
was  astonishing.  Apparently  they  chattered  with  one 
ear  open  to  the  teacher's  words  as  the  proverbial  cat 
sleeps  with  one  eye  open.  He  momentarily  withdrew 
his  attention  from  the  student  who  was  reciting  and 


LOW  LEVELS  OP  TEACHER  PERSONALITIES    29 

directed  his  fusilade  towards  the  rest  of  the  class  to  clear 
up  the  difficulty. 

"Get  it  folks?"  came  from  the  teacher,  after  a  few 
words  of  explanation.  Another  buzz  of  protest,  then  a 
little  altercation,  a  truce  and  a  readjustment,  and  "Now 
you're  fixed,  folks?"  Again  the  teacher  resumed  his  run- 
ning fire  of  individual  persiflage. 

His  questions  were  in  French.  He  asked  the  ladies 
their  age,  and  some  said  it  was  six  and  others  eighty. 
He  asked  them  if  they  liked  the  movies  and  wanted  to 
be  movie-actresses.  No,  they  would  rather  be  charwom- 
en and  cooks.  He  asked  the  men  if  they  had  potatoes  in 
their  pockets,  if  they  liked  to  eat  snow.  No,  they  had 
nothing  but  diamonds  in  their  pockets  and  would  rather 
chew  snuff.  During  this  chaffing  some  of  the  men  walk- 
ed from  one  end  of  the  room  to  the  other  to  compare 
translations  of  sentences.  One  man  was  trying  to  stuff 
a  book  down  another's  coat  collar. 

Here  are  three  remarks  by  the  teacher  caught  on  the 
fly,  while  the  observer  had  his  eyes  on  the  stage  busi- 
ness of  the  lesser  stars  of  the  performance. 

"I'll  let  you  do  that  later." 

"You  don't  know  enough  English  to  answer  that." 

"You've  got  more  trouble  than  spelling." 

It  was  very  amusing.  One  wondered  if  this  Gaelic  light- 
ness, this  frothy  effervescence  was  not  far  preferable  to 
the  too  frequent  Anglo-Saxon  dough  of  dullness.  Still  it 
was  too  bad  that  this  wildfire  mental  activity  could  not 
be  directed  to  more  substantial  and  serious  ends. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  10 — Type  4 

It  was  a  class  of  "Musical  Appreciation"  assembled  in 
a  large  auditorium.  The  teacher  was  a  tall,  heavy  set 
man,  well  past  middle  age,  with  a  thick  mat  of  iron  gray 
hair  and  a  thunderous  voice.  He  began  by  calling,  or 
rather  shouting,  the  roll  and  spent  seven  minutes  running 
through  forty  names.  It  was  strange  performance.  He 
went  through  it  only  once  a  week — as  was  learned  later — 


30  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

but  then  he  made  an  event  of  it.  He  made  droll  remarks 
about  the  more  uncommon  names,  and  demanded  more 
sonorous  responses  to  his  calls.  When  some  of  the  bolder 
spirits  in  the  class  answered  so  stentoriously  that  they 
awoke  the  echoes,  he  would  shout  back;  "That's  some- 
thing like  it.  I'm  glad  you're  alive."  There  was  no  re- 
sponse when  he  called  one  girl's  name;  "We'll  put  her 
among  the  goats."  The  next  girl  responded  to  the  call. 
"You  belong  to  the  sheep,"  he  remarked. 

During  the  roll  call  some  students  entered  about  five 
minutes  late.  "Why  don't  you  people  come  to  class  on 
time?"  he  roared.  The  late  arrivals  were  momentarily 
taken  aback.  The  other  students  laughed  appreciatively. 
The  class  was  in  a  constant  state  of  titillation  during 
the  whole  of  this  performance.  It  was  sheer  buffoonery 
with  an  element  of  drollery,  but  it  none  the  less  expres- 
sed a  low  level  leadership. 

He  then  commenced  to  talk  about  Bach.  He  wanted  to 
play  some  of  Bach's  organ  compositions,  but  considered 
the  organ  in  the  auditorium  too  wretched  to  be  endured. 

"I'd  like  to  get  rid  of  this  organ !"  he  said,  pointing  to 
the  instrument.  "It  is  driving  me  stark  mad.  Who  will 
buy  it?  It's  up  for  auction.  Who'll  make  the  first  bid?" 

No  one  bid.  Apparently  his  depreciating  comments 
had  prejudiced  the  members  of  the  class.  No  one  desired 
the  organ.  All  his  exhortations  did  not  "get  a  rise"  from 
the  class.  He  assumed  an  air  of  desperation.  "Nothing 
bid.  Going!  Going!  Gone!  Sold  to  no  one  for  nothing!" 
and  he  banged  his  fist  on  the  lecture  stand.  The  class 
was  convulsed  at  the  mummery. 

The  rest  of  the  class  period  was  spent  in  much  the 
same  manner. 

His  personality  possessed  a  whimsical  eccentricity  of 
manner  and  expression,  tinged  with  considerable  high- 
handedness and  arrogance.  Yet  his  character  appeared 
invertebrate  and  slovenly.  His  tomfoolery,  nonsensical- 
ity,  and  horse-play  were  amusing,  but  demoralized  the 
educational  interest  of  the  class.  Not  ten  minutes  of 
serious  work  was  done  during  the  whole  hour. 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY     31 

Some  teachers  were  lackadaisical  and  apathetic.  They 
neither  desired  nor  were  able  to  do  any  effective  teaching. 
A  number  of  such  teachers  were  visited  and  their  classes 
were  the  scenes  of  several  startling  and  unusual  incidents. 
Two  examples  of  this  type  of  personality  will  be  des- 
cribed briefly. 


Personality  No.  11 — Type  7 

A  small  class — eleven  women  and  two  men — sat  wait- 
ing for  the  instructor  to  appear.  It  was  a  course  in 
"Elementary  Harmony."  Five  minutes  after  the  gong 
had  sounded,  a  young  lady  appeared  in  the  doorway,  an- 
nounced that  the  teacher  wanted  the  class  to  write  their 
exercises  in  harmonizing  on  the  board,  and  thereupon 
disappeared.  The  transcribing  of  these  exercises,  con- 
sisting of  four  measures,  occupied  eleven  minutes.  The 
students  finished  this  work,  returned  to  their  seats,  but 
no  teacher  appeared  on  the  scene. 

Then  some  daring  spirit  suggested  that  we  organize 
an  impromptu  chorus  and  sing  the  exercises  which  had 
been  transcribed  on  the  board.  One  spirit  took  command 
of  the  piano,  another  seized  a  baton  and  assigned  parts 
to  each  of  the  students.  The  visitor  was  asked  to  sing 
bass,  presumably  because  he  sat  on  the  left  side  of  the 
class. 

A  few  crashing  chords,  and  we  were  off.  It  was  real 
fun;  it  was  spontaneous  and  original  and  contained  the 
spice  of  danger.  The  melodies  which  had  been  harmoniz- 
ed were  sonorous  and  had  the  majesty  of  Gregorian 
chants.  The  spirit  and  exhilaration  of  the  thing  mounted 
higher  and  higher.  We  were  carried  away  by  a  genuine 
enthusiasm.  Suddenly  as  we  were  gloriously  launched 
on  the  pinions  of  a  stately  melody,  the  teacher  appeared 
in  the  dootway.  The  song  faltered  and  dropped  like  a 
wounded  bird  in  its  flight. 

It  was  twenty-four  minutes  after  the  hour.  The  in- 
structor smiled  comprehendingly,  but  made  no  comment. 
He  was  a  tall  young  man  and  wore  a  cream  colored  palm 


32  PERSONALITTCULTURE 

beach  suit,  a  white  tie  and  white  canvas  shoes.  The 
total  effect  was  pleasing  to  the  eye.  His  expression  was 
nonchalant  and  indifferent,  his  manner  was  distinguish- 
ed, and  as  he  strode  across  the  room  he  carried  himself 
stiffly  and  haughtily,  like  a  young  military  officer  attend- 
ing a  fashionable  reception. 

The  teacher  went  to  the  board,  and  corrected  one  after 
another  of  the  exercises  written  there,  making  a  few  com- 
ments as  he  went  along.  He  finished  the  correcting  in 
twelve  minutes — nine  out  of  the  thirteen  students  having 
gone  to  the  board.  During  the  procedure  he  merely 
pointed  out  the  mistakes  and  corrected  them,  but  did  not 
try  to  discover  whether  or  not  the  various  members  of 
the  class  had  noted  them  and  could  correct  them.  Then 
he  wrote  out  a  melody  on  the  board  and  proceeded  to 
harmonize  it.  Even  in  this  he  did  not  enlist  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  class.  He  sat  down  at  the  piano  and  played 
it  over. 

"Wherever  you  can  use  a  fifth  you  can  also  use  a 
seventh,"  he  said  after  he  had  finished.  For  a  few  mo- 
ments he  dawdled  with  the  keys,  striking  a  few  chords. 

"Do  you  know  the  use  of  discord  in  music?  Concord 
of  sweet  sounds  is  not  always  a  concord.  Harmony  is 
a  matter  of  interest,  you  have  discord  and  then  a  resolu- 
tion." He  played  a  few  bars  from  Tristan  and  Isolde, 
saying  that  here  discord  expressed  desire. 

"We  are  not  writing  black  dots,  but  music,"  he  re- 
marked in  a  bored  tone,  gazing  up  at  the  ceiling.  The 
class  was  a  necessary  evil ;  he  regarded  it  as  a  child  that 
must  be  quieted,  it  was  his  task  to  keep  it  from  fidgeting 
or  crying.  He  succeeded,  for  he  almost  put  the  tiresome 
little  creature  to  sleep.  Some  of  the  students  stared 
listlessly  about,  others  sat  dreaming  with  half-closed  eyes. 
They  asked  him  no  questions  and  he  took  care  to  ask 
them  none.  He  wrote  on  the  board,  played  the  piano, 
and  made  a  few  desultory  remarks.  The  twenty  six  min- 
utes which  he  deigned  to  spend  with  the  class  passed 
peacefully  and  uneventfully.  The  delightful  spirit  that 
had  permeated  the  class  during  the  impromptu  concert 
had  been  smothered  by  the  teacher's  indifference  and 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  83 

bored  manner. 

The  teacher  was  frequently  late  and  always  lacka- 
daisical, was  the  statement  of  one  of  the  students,  as  we 
filed  out  dejectedly.  This  teacher's  apathy  was  in  strik- 
ing contrast  to  the  turgid,  effervescence  of  the  teacher 
previously  described,  but  the  results  in  both  cases  were 
about  equally  negligible. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  12— Type  8 

It.  was  another  class  in  beginning  French,  which  was 
visited  during  the  last  week  of  the  summer  session.  The 
teacher  was  a  saucer-eyed,  thick  lipped  man  with  gaunt 
cheeks  and  sandy  hair.  He  did  not  look  like  a  French- 
man, much  less  did  he  talk  like  one. 

First  he  sent  his  class  of  fourteen  students  to  the 
board,  each  to  translate  two  short  sentences  from  En- 
glish into  French.  To  each  student  were  assigned  dif- 
ferent sentences.  During  the  ten  minutes  consumed  in 
writing  these,  nothing  was  said.  The  next  twenty-five 
minutes  were  devoted  to  correcting  these  sentences.  The 
number  and  variety  of  the  mistakes  that  the  students 
succeeded  in  making  in  these  simple  exercises  constituted 
a  marvel  of  misdirected  ingenuity  that  taxed  shrewdly 
the  teacher's  ability  to  correct  them.  One  might  have 
expected  a  storm  of  denunciation  and  ridicule  from  the 
teacher,  for  the  futility  of  the  work  was  truly  disgraceful. 
But  it  appeared  to  occasio'n  no  surprise.  He  plodded  a- 
long  amiably  and  futilely,  droning  out  his  criticisms  with 
an  apathetic  patience  mixed  with  a  somnolent  keenness. 

The  remaining  fifteen  minutes  were  devoted  to  oral 
work,  wherein  it  developed  that  the  students  did  not 
understand  what  the  instructor  was  saying,  that  the  lat- 
ter's  pronunciation  of  French  was  execrable,  and  that  the 
students'  ability  to  answer  in  French  was  almost  zero. 
The  oral  work  consisted  of  a  series  of  questions  in  French 
repeated  a  half  dozen  times,  often  with  an  English  trans- 
lation of  them  and  interspersed  with  monosyllabic  re- 
plies from  the  students.  The  replies  consisted  mainly  of 


34  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

variations  of  "non",  "oui",  "comment",  and  "je  ne  sais 
pas".  The  students  had  learned  practically  nothing  dur- 
ing the  five  and  a  half  weeks. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  hour  a  huge  wasp,  which  had 
remained  perfectly  silent  until  this  time,  broke  out  into 
a  terrible  buzzing,  apparently  unable  to  restrain  any 
longer  its  indignation  at  this  parody  on  teaching.  Most 
of  the  girls  started  as  if  stung,  craned  their  necks,  and 
glanced  wildly  about  the  room  to  locate  the  source  of 
these  ominous  noises.  Even  the  men  aroused  themselves 
out  of  their  apathy  to  stare  about  in  search  of  the  intrud- 
er. The  wasp  seemed  to  have  been  seized  with  some 
violent  hallucination.  He  was  spinning  round  and  round 
the  chandelier  like  a  motorcycle  on  a  race  track.  The 
attention  of  all  the  students  was  focussed  on  the  antics 
of  the  crazy  little  beast.  Their  expression  was  one  of 
commingled  amusement  and  alarm.  The  teacher  at- 
tempted to  continue  the  recitation,  but  the  class  could 
think  of  nothing  but  the  furious  revolutions  of  the  wasp. 

Apparently,  there  was  but  one  solution,  the  immediate 
annihilation  of  the  intruder.  So,  snatching  up  a  window 
stick,  the  instructor  like  a  valiant  knight  of  old  advanced 
to  the  attack  and  struck  out  fiercely  at  the  venomous 
creature.  The  blow  missed  the  wasp,  but  almost  smashed 
the  chandelier.  The  warrior  struck  again  and  this  time 
a  glancing  blow  knocked  the  winged  opponent  against 
the  window  pane.  The  blow  and  the  impact  of  the  glass 
pane  appeared  to  have  stunned  him,  for  he  crouched 
there  silent  and  immobile.  The  gleaming  window  stick 
descended  and  crushed  the  benumbed  creature.  The 
poignant  suspense  of  the  class  vented  itself  in  a  sten- 
torian sigh  of  relief.  Flushed  with  the  victory,  the  wasp- 
slayer  marched  proudly  back  to  his  desk,  brandishing  his 
weapon  aloft. 

"Voila  la  bataille  de  la  guepe!"  he  called  out.  The 
class  laughed  heartily.  The  "battle  of  the  wasp"  was 
practically  the  only  thing  to  the  teacher's  credit  that 
occurred  during  the  hour. 

These  last  four  descriptions  illustrate  the  pernicious 
effects  of  indifferent,  lackadaisical  personalities.  In  none 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY      35 

of  these  classes  were  the  students  obtaining  results  in  any 
degree  approximating  the  possible  attainments.  The 
first  two  men  were  teachers  of  considerable  ability  and 
grasp  of  subject,  who  frittered  away  the  class  time  with 
banter  and  tomfoolery ;  the  two  last  described  were  lack- 
adaisical young  men  who  had  little  enough  personality 
as  it  was,  and  should  have  strained  every  effort  to  de- 
velop their  teaching  power  so  as  to  produce  results. 


Many  of  the  teachers  were  frigid  and  stiff  in  their  man- 
ner. Their  expression  was  one  of  contempt  and  aloofness, 
and  appeared  extremely  forbidding  to  the  student. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  13— Type  6 

In  this  class  the  teacher  was  lecturing  on  "Heredity 
and  Eugenics".  He  was  past  middle  age.  His  features 
were  large  and  firmly  moulded.  As  he  stood  by  the 
side  of  his  lecture  stand  waiting  for  the  class  to  assemble, 
his  appearance  was  impressive  and  commanding. 

When  he  started  to  speak,  however,  one  suffered  a  dis- 
tinct shock.  Instead  of  the  resonant  voice  of  a  deep 
chested  man,  one  heard  a  thin,  high-pitched  voice  like 
the  quavering  of  a  youth.  He  spoke  rapidly,  enunciated 
quite  distinctly,  but  his  intonation  was  as  monotonous 
as  the  flatness  of  a  prairie.  It  was  impossible  to  detect 
from  his  tone  what  part  of  his  lecture  was  essential  and 
important,  and  what  incidental  and  trivial,  for  he  empha- 
sized nothing. 

As  he  lectured,  the  settled  hardness  and  coldness  of 
his  nature  revealed  itself  unmistakably.  He  seemed  as 
incapable  of  enthusiasm  and  sympathy  as  a  granite  statue. 
His  eyes  were  cold  and  hard  and  dull,  while  his  face 
lacked  the  mobility  of  expression  which  reveals  a  warm, 
sympathetic  nature.  His  influence  on  the  spirit  of  the 
class  was  markedly  depressing,  for  the  students  sat  in 
their  seats  dull  and  apathetic. 

He  had  his  assistant  throw  various  lantern  slides  on  the 


36  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

screen.  This  sufficed  to  arouse  momentarily  the  interest 
of  the  students,  who  sat  up  and  craned  their  necks  to 
observe  the  slides.  However,  as  soon  as  he  commenced 
to  explain  the  slides,  they  would  relapse  into  their  former 
listlessness.  Apathy  and  interest  alternated  like  the 
trough  and  crest  of  ocean  waves  as  new  slides  were  fol- 
lowed by  tedious,  unilluminating  explanations.  His  com- 
ments were  full  of  long  strange,  technical  terms,  which  no 
one  appeared  to  understand  and  which  he  made  no  at- 
tempt to  define. 

When  the  lights  were  turned  off  to  bring  out  the 
pictures  on  the  screen,  the  teacher's  form,  erect  and  im- 
mobile, could  be  seen  dimly  outlined  by  the  reflected 
light  thereon.  One  was  then  forcibly  struck  by  the  im- 
pression that  the  thin,  droning  voice  was  mechanically 
produced  in  the  interior  of  a  cunningly  fashioned  statue. 
The  teacher  did  not  appear  capable  of  a  genuine  human 
emotion. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  14 — Type  5 

Another  teacher  who  seemed  as  cold  and  unemotional 
as  the  one  preceding,  was  giving  a  course  in  "Physical  and 
Applied  Geography".  He  was  of  middle  age,  tall  and 
spare.  What  appeared  at  first  glance  to  be  traces  of 
laughter  and  good  humor  in  the  corners  of  his  eyes  and 
mouth  turned  out  to  be  markings  of  an  ironic  humor  and 
a  tolerant  cynicism.  His  was  not  a  harsh,  arrogant  na- 
ture, but  it  did  contain  a  vein  of  coldness  and  mocking 
aloofness. 

His  chair  was  swung  around  so  that  his  left  side  was 
presented  to  the  class  and  as  he  sat  there,  he  slouched 
back  in  his  chair  and  his  limbs  sprawled  out  with  one 
knee  crossed  over  the  other.  His  chin  and  knees  were  on 
the  same  level.  He  changed  his  position  only  once 
during  the  recitation,  when  he  went  to  the  board  to 
point  out  the  course  of  the  Rhine  River. 

His  mind  was  as  lazy  as  his  body,  for  while  the  class 
consisted  mostly  of  mature  students, — presumably  high 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY     37 

school  and  grade  teachers, — who  had  a  right  to  expect 
to  gain  a  broader  perspective  as  well  as  a  deeper  grasp 
of  the  profounder  principles  of  the  subject,  the  course  ap- 
peared to  be  merely  a  review  of  fifth,  sixth  and  seventh 
grade  geography,  identical  in  matter  and  spirit  with  the 
work  done  in  these  grades.  Nothing  was  discussed,  no 
questions  asked  or  answers  given  that  would  have  sur- 
passed the  grasp  of  a  sixth  grade  pupil.  Not  only  that, 
but  the  method  of  conducting  the  recitation  was  of  the 
same  quality  as  the  subject  matter, — mechanical,  cut-and- 
dried,  and  monotonous.  The  class  lacked  snap  and  vim. 
Intelligence  and  interest  were  minus  qualities.  The  pe- 
riod was  an  intellectual  backwater,  stagnant  and  brackish. 
The  whole  trouble  could  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
teacher,  for  it  resulted  directly  from  his  peculiar  type  of 
personality. 

This  quality  of  emotional  inertness,  this  coldness  and 
indifference,  characterized  all  too  many  of  the  instruct- 
ors. At  least  twenty  of  them  were  of  a  markedly  frigid, 
unsympathetic  nature  and  in  twenty-four  more  there 
were  traces  of  this  trait.  It  is  folly  to  expect  teachers 
of  such  personality  to  accomplish  worth  while  results 
with  young  people,  whose  emotional  natures  are  so  fresh 
and  vigorous  and  whose  enthusiasms  are  so  lively  and 
expansive.  Coldness  is  a  deadly  foe  to  interest,  without 
which  little  good  can  come  out  of  classroom  instruction. 


Another  obstructing  personality  element  is  affectation. 
Among  college  students  many  of  whom  still  retain  their 
adolescent  perspicacity,  it  is  fatal  for  a  professor  to  be  af- 
fected. Students  have  a  keen  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  and 
there  is  little  that  escapes  their  sharp  eyes,  and  does 
not  prove  fair  game  for  their  ridicule  and  mockery.  The 
affectations  of  the  professors  furnish  inexhaustible 
sources  of  amusement  for  the  students,  and  at  the  same 
time  provoke  in  their  hearts  a  feeling  of  patronizing 
contemot. 


38  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

Teacher  Personality  No.  15 — Type  7 

The  teacher  wore  tortoise-shell  rimmed  glasses  of  such 
great  size  that  they  looked  like  automobile  goggles,  and 
distracted  the  students'  attention  from  what  he  was  say- 
ing. He  was  a  fair,  plump  young  man  of  about  thirty. 
He  spoke  blandly,  with  a  soft  wheedling  voice.  During 
most  of  the  class  hour  he  sat  on  a  tall  stool,  swinging  his 
leg  to  and  fro.  One  was  reminded  of  those  drawing 
room  gods,  "eligibles,"  who  pose  in  front  of  fireplaces, 
and  chatter  glibly  on  all  possible  subjects,  while  doting 
mammas  and  worshipping  daughters  drink  in  their  golden 
words. 

It  was  a  course  in  voice  training.  The  subject  of  his 
talk  was  the  vocal  organs.  He  was  speaking  of  the 
larynx.  "With  some  men  the  larynx  is  very  large. 
Haven't  you  ever  watched  a  man's  larynx  when  he  is 
eating?  The  action  of  it  fascinates  one."  The  class, 
mostly  girls,  watched  him  soulfully — he  was  very  hand- 
some— with  that  far  away  look  of  people  listening  to 
soft  music. 

He  spoke  of  the  peculiarities  of  certain  voices,  and  as 
an  example,  he  told  of  a  large  youth  he  had  heard  in  a 
cafeteria  a  few  days  ago,  who  talked  like  a  girl.  As  he 
imitated  the  youth's  voice,  the  unconscious  irony  of  the 
situation  flashed  upon  one.  The  difference  between  his 
own  voice  and  the  one  he  imitated  was  but  the  difference 
of  a  few  degrees. 

Voice  and  tortoise  rimmed  glasses  were  admirably 
suited  to  his  nonchalant,  affected  air  and  manner.  It  was 
not  enough  for  him  that  his  appearance  and  manners 
were  affected,  but  he  must  treat  his  intellectual  processes 
in  the  same  way.  He  evinced  an  unusual  attitude  toward 
his  subject  matter,  for  he  appeared  to  stand  apart  from 
his  subject  with  his  arms  akimbo,  teasing  and  befuddling 
it,  laughing  at  it  and  flirting  with  it. 

Occasionally  he  resembled  a  child,  pretending  to  be 
an  actor.  He  appeared  to  forget  about  the  class,  and 
sometimes  seemed  to  treat  it  as  an  imaginary  audience. 
His  prattle  apparently  was  intended  mainly  to  amuse 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY      39 

himself.  For  example,  he  had  a  number  of  plaster  of 
paris  casts,  some  of  the  vocal  chords,  some  of  the  skull. 
He  fondled  them  as  a  child  its  dolls,  turned  his  head 
away  from  the  class,  and  directed  his  chatter  to  them. 
Then  he  would  suddenly  recollect  the  presence  of  his 
class  and  address  himself  to  his  fond  admirers.  It  was 
a  ridiculous  performance,  to  say  the  least. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  cruelty  in  most  students' 
natures.  Students  make  but  little  distinction  between 
those  ridiculous  affectations  which  are  preventable,  and 
certain  physical  defects  which  are  unavoidably  ludicrous. 
The  man  next  described  is  an  example  of  a  teacher  who 
was  ridiculous  in  both  appearance  and  manner,  yet  is 
classed  in  personality  type  3  because  of  other  qualities 
and  powers  that  even  affectations  could  not  entirely  sub- 
merge. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  16 — Type  3 

He  was  a  professor  of  history  whose  low  cut  sailor 
collar  revealed  a  thin  pipestem  of  a  neck,  upon  which  was 
perched — most  precariously,  it  seemed — his  round,  bald 
head,  resembling  for  all  the  world  a  large  wooden  ball  on 
the  top  of  a  gate  post.  His  weak,  squinting  little  eyes 
were  protected  from  the  too  curious  gaze  of  his  students 
by  blue-tinted  glasses.  A  flamboyant,  light  green  necktie 
made  large  claims  on  student  attention. 

His  voice  was  thin,  high-pitched  and  girlish.  He  had  a 
facile  command  of  words.  But  he  overworked  an  affec- 
tation of  his  speech  until  it  became  tiresome^  For  ex- 
ample, he  used  long  "uhs"  to  link  together  his  loose 
jointed  sentences,  while  he  drew  generously  on  his  stock 
of  "ands",  pronounced  "awhnd",  to  bridge  the  students' 
attention  from  one  idea  to  another.  He  used  seventy- 
five  "uhs"  and  thirty  "awhnds"  in  five  minutes.  France 
became  "Frawnce" ;  can't  was  pronounced  "cahnt"  and 
dance  "dawnce".  "Europe",  for  example,  became  "Eurip" 
under  the  wizardry  of  his  tongue.  Despite  these  little 
idiosyncrasies  of  dress  and  speech,  he  was  dn  the  whole 


40  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

quite  charming,  entertaining  and  informing.  He  was 
bright  and  humorous,  and  alert  to  adjust  his  sly,  whimsi- 
cal humor  to  the  mood  of  his  students,  who  laughed  both 
alternately  and  simultaneously  at  his  affectations,  ludi- 
crous appearance,  and  witticisms. 


A  couple  of  the  men  appeared  to  experience  difficulty 
in  expressing  themselves  as  fluently  and  as  clearly  as 
they  wished. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  17 — Type  7 

A  class  in  "Architecture"  was  being  held  in  a  darkened 
room.  A  young  man  with  a  bald  forehead  was  seated 
behind  the  lecture  desk.  A  small  dim  light  with  a  green 
shade  illuminated  his  manuscript.  The  shade  darkened 
his  eyes  somewhat,  but  the  light  shone  full  on  his  mouth. 
It  was  a  startling  mouth,  for  it  was  both  enormous  and 
ill-shapen.  Certain  irreverent  spirits  in  the  class  spoke 
of  him  as  "Newlywed".  He  spoke  so  indistinctly  that 
one  wondered  if  the  size  of  his  mouth  did  not  prevent  the 
proper  focussing  of  the  sound  waves. 

Not  only  was  his  enunciation  indistinct,  but  his  voice 
was  so  low  that  it  was  practically  impossible  to  catch 
his  words.  Yet  he  sat  there,  blase,  nonchalant  and  assur- 
ed, as  though  he  were  a  most  effective,  instead  of  an  al- 
most futile  pedagogue. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  18 — Type  8 

Another  man  was  giving  a  course  for  football  coaches. 
He  was  a  large,  powerfully  built  man.  He  gave  a  curious 
talk  on  liniments,  alcohol,  wintergreen,  bruises,  sprains, 
scratches  and  broken  arches.  Apparently,  he  was  not  a 
man  of  wonjs,  but  a  man  of  action,  for  very  often  he 
would  stop  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  as  though  stricken 
with  sudden  aphasia,  sputter  and  choke,  and  start  pacing 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY     41 

the  room.     His  movements  were  eloquent  of  an  internal 
distress  which  he  had  no  power  to  alleviate. 

He  maltreated  the  King's  English  with  the  same  energy 
and  incivility  that  he  usually  bestowed  upon  a  tackling 
dummy.  He  had  a  predilection  for  saying  "arnicky."  The 
term  seemed  as  indispensable  to  his  discourse  as  the 
article  is  to  football  players  in  their  training  rooms.  His 
ideas  appeared  to  suffer  from  fearful  dislocations  and 
rheumatic  distortions.  The  progress  of  his  ideas  resem- 
bled the  wheezing  and  snorting  ascent  of  a  superannuated 
locomotive  up  a  steep  grade,  bumping  and  jerking  along. 
There  existed  no  possibility  of  extracting  any  humor  from 
the  situation,  for  the  slow  grind  of  a  few  phrases  inter- 
rupted by  sudden  jerky  pauses  was  agony  for  both  teach- 
er and  students.  And  yet  the  man  continued  his 
attempts  at  speaking  with  a  desperate,  foolhardy  cour- 
age. It  was  a  unique  but  extremely  uncomfortable  ex- 
perience. 


Tediousness  on  the  part  of  the  instructor  in  the  class- 
room may  result  from  a  number  of  causes.  Very  rarely 
does  it  result  from  a  teacher's  excessively  rapid  intellec- 
tion, although  such  cases  may  exist.  Then  tedium  results 
because  the  ideas  thrown  out  by  the  teacher  are  too 
unusual  and  move  along  too  rapidly  for  the  students' 
minds  to  grasp  them.  The  students  cannot  hit  the  same 
pace  of  intellection  and  lose  interest  through  sheer  ex- 
haustion. The  lecturer  in  the  class  "The  High  School 
Recitation"  described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  was  a 
good  example  of  rapid,  though  confused  intellection. 
The  students  could  no  more  follow  his  rapid  train  of 
associations  and  ideas  than  they  would  overtake  the 
Twentieth  Century  Limited  going  at  full  speed. 

Sometimes  students  become  bored  because  of  too  great 
an  amount  of  banter,  joking  and  whimsicality.  Living 
on  mental  froth  is  unsatisfying;  the  intellect  calls  for 
substantial  food.  Then,  too,  apathy,  coldness,  affectation 
and  ineptitudes  of  speech  are  breeders  of  boredom.  The 
zenith  of  tediousness,  however,  is  reached  in  classes 


42  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

where  the  teacher  is  prolix  and  platitudinous.  Nothing 
is  so  painful  as  to  be  subjected  to  lectures  and  recitations 
which  are  discursive  and  repetitious,  and  are  replete  with 
the  trite  and  the  obvious. 

An  astonishing  number  of  the  instructors  had  develop- 
ed this  power  of  inflicting  tedium  upon  the  defenseless 
students.  Often  the  classes  of  such  men  were  torture 
racks  from  which  there  was  no  escape. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  19 — Type  7 

The  teacher  of  a  class  in  "Modern  German  Drama" 
was  a  young,  tall,  blond-haired  fellow  who  wore 
glasses,  and  had  already  fallen  into  the  manners  and  tak- 
en on  the  appearance  of  the  proverbial  scholar. 

He  talked  continuously  in  a  peculiar  and  erratic  kind 
of  German.  The  fault  was  not  so  much  that  the  pronun- 
ciation was  so  execrable,  but  that  the  structure  of  his 
sentences  was  strange  and  uncouth.  He  would  propound 
a  question,  repeat  it,  and  then  proceed  to  recast  it  into 
two  or  three  different  forms,  sometimes  using  complete 
sentences  and  at  other  times  only  phrases.  During  the 
whole  hour  he  called  on  only  three  students  individually 
to  answer  questions.  In  addition,  he  asked  only  a  dozen 
leading  questions  of  the  class,  who  mechanically  respond- 
ed "Yes"  or  "No"  as  the  occasion  demanded.  The  rest  of 
the  time  was  consumed  by  his  talk,  sheer  drivel,  by 
comments  and  explanations  which  were  variations  of  the 
trite  and  the  obvious. 

He  possessed  a  species  of  alertness  which  was  part  of 
his  campaign  for  suppressing  thought  of  any  character  or 
quantity,  for  his  eyes  were  constantly  searching  for  the 
laggard  and  the  inattentive  and  whipping  them  into  a 
state  of  mechanical  eye-allegiance  to  himself.  He  strang- 
led all  thought  and  animation.  There  was  no  escape  from 
the  all-encompassing  tedium. 


In  some  classes,  however,  there  existed  some  loop- 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY     43 

holes  for  escape  from  boredom.  Some  of  the  classes 
were  large,  and  there  the  students  could  take  turns  nap- 
ping like  squads  of  sentinels  relieving  each  other,  could 
read  novels,  study  other  lessons,  write  letters,  send  notes, 
or  whisper  gaily. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  20— Type  9 

In  one  class  a  number  of  students  managed  to  escape 
the  full  effects  of  tediousness,  despite  the  fact  that  it  was 
a  small  class  consisting  on\f  of  six  men  and  six  women. 
Although  the  room  was  small  and  contained  only  three 
rows  of  seats,  each  row  had  the  backs  of  the  seats  solidly 
connected,  so  that  they  formed  bulwarks  against  the 
prying  eyes  of  the  instructor. 

It  was  a  sophomore  class  in  "Composition."  The 
teacher  was  talking  about  reformed  spelling,  and  was 
inveighing  against  the  tendency  to  mangle  the  English 
language.  He  devoted  thirty-five  minutes  to  a  tedious 
talk  on  reformed  spelling,  which  should  not  have  required 
more  than  ten  minutes.  His  talk  consisted  of  a  series  of 
loose-jointed,  rambling  ideas,  utterly  hackneyed  and 
stupid,  which  the  students  had  probably  discarded  in  the 
grades  six  or  seven  years  previous.  Not  one  of  the  stu- 
dents paid  any  attention  to  his  remarks.  Dull  and  listless 
they  sat  gazing  wearily  about  the  room  or  staring  ab- 
stractedly out  of  the  windows. 

Three  of  the  students  were  courageous  enough  to 
emancipate  themselves  entirely  from  the  tyranny  of  their 
teacher.  One  girl  was  reading  Arnold's  "Sohrab  and 
Rustum,"  another  was  reading  a  French  play  by  Labiche, 
and  a  third  student,  a  man,  was  reading  some  German 
poems.  Their  absorption  was  complete,  and  no  doubt  the 
other  students  envied  them  their  brief  snatches  of 
happiness.  During  the  last  fifteen  of  the  fifty  minutes 
the  teacher  attempted  to  enlist  the  students'  cooperation, 
but  with  no  success.  He  spent  ten  minutes  in  reading  a 
composition,  then  asked  for  comments.  No  one  had  any 
comments  to  make,  so  finally  the  teacher  was  forced  to 


44  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

criticize  it  himself  during  the  five  remaining  minutes. 

The  two  men  last  described  had  mediocre,  pedestrian 
minds.  They  were  like  tortoises  crawling  along,  labor- 
iously examining  every  inch  of  ground  they  covered. 
Not  only  was  their  gait  plodding,  but  the  ground  covered 
had  been  traversed  many  times  before. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  21 — Type  5 

Another  man  observed  had  this  same  quality  of  mind, 
but  his  fault  was  not  so  much  that  of  triteness  as  of  an 
excessive  diffusiveness,  due  to  an  overanxiety  to  make 
things  clear  for  the  class.  He  was  giving  a  course  in  the 
"Teaching  of  Literature".  He  was  of  medium  height. 
His  brow  was  finely  proportioned  and  betokened  fine  in- 
tellectual powers,  but  a  weak  chin  expressed  irresolute- 
ness  and  timidity.  His  manner  was  suave  and  his  voice 
bland.  He  bent  forward  in  an  apologetic  manner,  and 
he  rubbed  his  hands  together  in  a  conciliatory  fashion 
like  the  conventionalized  pawnbroker  receiving  a  rich 
customer.  Diplomacy  and  tact  oozed  from  every  pore. 

He  was  advising  the  students  what  texts  to  use.  It 
was  "One  should  not  do  this",  "It  was  better  to  use  that 
text",  "This  is  preferable",  "Does  not  this  seem  advis- 
able?" "What  does  the  class  think  of  this  idea?",  until 
one  wondered  if  all  his  vertebrae  had  been  extracted. 

He  seemed  to  abhor  the  idea  of  an  argument  or  a  dis- 
cussion. He  monopolized  almost  all  the  time;  occasion- 
ally, he  would  ask  a  yes-or-no-question  of  a  student,  stop 
a  few  seconds  for  an  answer,  and  hurry  on.  A  number 
of  times  some  of  the  students  were  on  the  point  of  raising 
a  question,  but  the  teacher  would  then  talk  all  the 
faster,  and  stretch  out  his  hands  deprecatingly,  like  a 
minister  hushing  up  a  boisterous  Sunday  school  class. 
Although  he  was  a  man  of  considerable  ability,  his  faults 
— correctable  faults — of  personality  alienated  the  sym- 
pathy of  his  students.  His  effect  upon  teachers  is  re- 
curred to  in  Chapter  V. 


LOW  LEVELS  OP  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  45 

Teacher  Personality  No.  22— Type  4 

It  was  a  class  in  "English  Literature".  The  teacher 
stalked  into  the  room  dragging  his  feet  in  a  peculiar 
manner.  Although  he  could  lift  his  heel  off  the  floor  the 
toe  of  his  shoe  scraped  on  the  floor.  He  was  tall,  slouchy 
and  awkward.  His  body  was  a  wonderful  collection  of 
joints, — ankles,  knees,  hips,  fingers,  elbows  and  shoulders. 
A  huge  Adam's  apple  and  a  colossal  nose,  a  close  rival 
of  Cyrano's,  gave  the  finishing  touches  to  the  edifice. 
The  man  seemed  an  orgy  of  knots  and  protuberances. 
One  might  have  thought  that  he  was  an  apotheosis  of 
Ichabod  Crane,  only  this  man's  ears  were  puny  upstarts 
in  comparison  with  Ichabod's  "flapping  sails". 

He  was  lecturing  on  Smollet,  Fielding,  Richardson, 
Sterne,  and  did  not  mince  his  words.  His  frankness  was 
unnecessarily  offensive,  and  he  mouthed  his  innuendoes — 
of  which  a  dozen  were  recorded  by  the  visitor — as  though 
he  relished  every  word.  It  must  have  been  a  disgusting 
experience  for  the  seventeen  women  of  the  class,  who 
possibly  were  wondering  whether  it  were  vileness  or 
justifiable  scientific  frankness.  One  speculated  whether 
this  was  his  usual  procedure  or  whether  the  theme  and 
subject-matter  had  temporarily  contaminated  the  man. 
After  the  class  some  of  the  men  said  he  was  always  like 
this,  continually  flinging  out  cynical  and  salacious  re- 
marks. That  a  detailed  classification  would  rank  such  a 
personality  in  type  4  only  emphasizes  the  fact  that  col- 
lege faculties  may  not  safely  condone  lack  of  minimum 
essentials  no  matter  what  other  qualities  of  "scholar- 
ships" may  be  present. 


There  exist  a  few  men  who  are  so  surcharged  with 
energy  that  they  are  constantly  erupting  like  active  vol- 
canoes. To  many  students  these  eruptions  usually  appear 
ridiculous  or  affected,  and  always  disconcerting.  They 
cannot  understand  why  anyone  should  concern  himself 
so  energetically  and  seriously  with  the  affairs  of  this 
world. 


46  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

Teacher  Personality  No.  23 — Type  3 

A  teacher  of  "Agricultural  Bacteriology"  lectured  on  his 
subject  with  all  the  fervor  of  an  old  time  evangelist.  He 
possessed  a  megaphone  voice,  which  would  have  suited 
the  New  York  Hippodrome  better  than  this  modest  class- 
room seating  thirty-five  students.  His  words  came 
rushing  out  at  breakneck  speed.  His  voice  rumbled  and 
increased  to  deafening  crescendo  and  then  suddenly  drop- 
ped to  a  low  diminuendo.  One  might  imagine  him  to  be 
battling  furiously  with  an  unseen  foe.  But,  over-exag- 
gerated as  his  manner  might  seem,  he  accomplished  his 
purpose,  for  his  principles  were  driven  home  with  trip- 
hammer blows. 

The  man  had  a  tenacious  grip  on  his  subject  matter. 
Facts  and  figures  were  poured  profusely  in  an  almost 
continuous  seething  cascade  of  words.  If  he  stopped,  it 
was  only  to  catch  his  breath  and  glance  at  his  notes. 
Like  a  great  tragedian,  he  projected  his  deepest  and  sin- 
cerest  emotions  into  his  subject.  His  voice  became 
thick  and  choked  when  he  talked  about  the  number  of 
people  who  had  succumbed  to  typhoid  fever  and  tuber- 
culosis from  impure  milk.  One  was  drawn  into  his  own 
raging  maelstrom  of  feelings,  as  he  declaimed  on  the 
horrors  of  infant  mortality  caused  by  contaminated  milk 
and  made  a  plea  for  the  necessity  of  pasteurizing  it. 

He  also  delivered  an  impassioned  speech  on  the  manu- 
facture of  cheese.  Eight  varieties  of  cheese  had  been 
placed  on  the  lecture  table,  and  suffused  the  room  with 
their  pungent,  heavy  odors.  Their  odoriferous  po- 
tency almost  rivaled  the  lecturer's  eloquence.  It  was  an 
unforgettable  symphony  of  sounds  and  smells. 

The  teacher  had  certainly  mastered  the  principle  of 
emphasis  and  the  trick  of  appealing  to  as  many  senses  of 
his  students  as  possible.  One  wondered  if  he  would 
allow  us  to  taste  of  his  cheese,  but  this  he  did  not  permit 
us  to  do.  However,  one  felt  apologetically  grateful  that 
he  showed  greater  consideration  for  our  palates  and 
stomachs  than  for  our  ears  and  noses.  As  it  was,  with- 


LOW  LEVELS  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  47 

out  this  additional  appeal  to  our  sense  of  taste,  his  lecture 
made  a  lasting  impression.  It  was  unfortunate  that  a  man 
built  physically  and  intellectually  on  such  a  heroic  order 
could  not  obtain  a  far  greater  arena  for  the  exercise  of 
his  powers. 

Summary  of  Low  Level  Personalities 

It  was  distressing  and  disheartening  to  observe  such  a 
large  proportion  of  tattered  and  ill-kempt  and  low-level 
personalities  among  seventy-two  university  instructors. 
Some  of  them  retained  many  of  their  adolescent  traits, 
such  as  banter,  frivolity,  superciliousness,  conceit,  and 
affectations  of  dress  and  manner.  Others  had  sloughed 
off  these,  but  had  gained  in  their  stead  few,  if  any,  of  the 
sterling  qualities  of  maturity.  A  number  were  apathetic, 
indifferent,  indolent,  fawning  or  cynical.  Several  ap- 
peared to  be  in  their  dotage,  were  senile  and  ineffectual. 
Others  were  cold,  arrogant,  unsympathetic,  unresponsive 
and  diffusive.  Many  of  the  men  described  in  this  chapter 
were  indolent,  anemic  natures,  whom  a  generous  supply 
of  vital  energy  would  have  destroyed,  as  a  powerful 
engine  would  wreck  a  rotten  hulk. 

All  of  these  low-level  teachers  seemed  to  lack  the 
power  of  self  criticism.  They  could  not  see  themselves 
as  their  students  saw  them,  and  readjust  themselves  to 
the  requirements  of  the  situation.  They  did  not  appear  to 
realize  that  their  affectations  provoked  ridicule  on  the 
part  of  the  students,  that  excessive  banter  irritated  them 
and  bred  a  feeling  of  contempt,  that  their  coldness  alien- 
ated the  interest  and  affection  of  the  students,  that  their 
insincerity  and  apathy  aroused  disgust,  and  that  their 
diffusiveness  and  triteness  bored  painfully.  Some  teach- 
ers seemed  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  although  they  pos- 
sessed considerable  power  they  were  not  obtaining  re- 
sults. Others  did  not  realize  that  they  themselves  had 
practically  nothing  to  give  the  students.  Some  were 


48 


PERSONALITYCULTURB 


bluffs,  knew  it,  but  persisted;  others  were  so  egotistical 
that  they  deliberately  ignored  the  students. 

Many  of  these  men,  especially  the  younger,  could  easily 
take  themselves  in  hand,  and  reshape  and  develop  their 
personalities,  if  they  were  helped  to  realize  their  short- 
comings and  to  apply  themselves  to  personality  culture. 


For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


CHAPTER    IV 
PERSONALITIES  PLUS 

Under  the  present  scheme  of  higher  education,  it  is 
largely  in  the  classroom  that  the  vast  spiritual  treasures 
of  the  past  generations  are  transmitted  to  the  rightful 
heirs,  the  youth  of  the  new  generation.  It  is  here  that 
the  great  canvasses  of  the  past  are  flashed  upon  the 
mental  screens  of  the  youth,  so  that  their  minds  may  gain 
perspective  and  see  the  world  in  its  three  dimensions. 
The  present  must  be  stripped  of  its  baffling  complexity 
and  its  fundamental  order  and  framework  laid  bare. 
Young  hungry  minds  must  be  nourished  and  quickened 
to  multiform  activity,  noble  passions  must  be  aroused, 
enduring  interests  kindled,  and  eager  souls  swung  into 
action. 

It  was  gratifying  to  observe  that  a  number  of  the 
teachers  had  comprehended  the  more  significant  and  com- 
prehensive potentialities  of  the  classroom  and  at  the 
same  time  had  the  ability  and  the  desire  to  develop  and 
utilize  them.  The  preceding  chapter  depicted  a  gallery  of 
rather  displeasing  and  ineffectual  personalities.  Fortun- 
ately, they  had  their  opposites.  What  follows  will  pre- 
sent an  exposition  of  eight  personalities  who,  but  for 
exceptional  traits,  were  serious  and  well-balanced,  force- 
ful, enthusiastic,  sympathetic,  pleasing,  and  in  many 
cases  charming.  These  range  from  highest  types  of 
mental  and  spiritual  excellence  to  types  which  are  con- 
siderably above  the  average  in  qualities  that  inspire 
students  to  high  levels  of  thought  and  effort. 

A  number  of  these  teachers  were  men  of  generous 
mental  endowments,  of  high  attainments,  and  of  great 
energy  and  poise.  A  few  possessed  the  qualities  of  true 
greatness;  exceptional  powers  of  acquisition,  indefatig- 
able zeal,  and  a  vast  capacity  for  work.  Some  were  of 
restless  intellectual  curiosity,  of  retentive  memories,  of 


50  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

penetrating  insight,  with  a  rapacious  appetite  for  fresh 
knowledge,  a  driving  enthusiasm  and  contagious  sym- 
pathy. Others  were  not  so  highly  endowed,  were  of  les- 
ser mental  stature,  but  fine,  sincere  and  winning.  A  few 
finely  wrought  and  highly  finished  minds  were  discovered, 
men  of  delicacy  and  sensitivity,  keen,  witty,  and  scintil- 
lating. 

Two  of  the  men  were  frank  and  open-hearted,  and 
were  so  generously  endowed  with  broad,  human  sym- 
pathies, that  their  kindness,  tolerance  and  good  nature 
seemed  inexhaustible.  Their  sympathies  had  so  sharp- 
ened their  intuitions  that  in  presenting  their  ideas,  they 
knew  exactly  how  to  make  them  lucid  and  transparent 
to  the  class.  Instinctively  they  appreciated  the  specific 
difficulties  of  certain  ideas,  and  took  particular  pains  to 
clear  them  up.  Some  teachers  project  their  ideas  at  the 
student  in  much  the  same  fashion  as  mud  geysers  eject 
their  columns  of  mud.  The  more  such  men  talk,  the 
more  they  befuddle  the  students.  But  these  two  men 
seemed  to  invite  you  down  through  pellucid  depths  into 
spacious  submarine  galleries  of  glass,  through  whose 
transparent  walls  you  could  observe  the  profound  and 
hidden  mysteries  of  life  and  nature. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  24 — Type  1 

It  was  a  class  in  education  termed  "The  Treatment 
and  Training  of  Atypical  Cases",  consisting  of  twenty- 
four  students,  nine  of  whom  were  women.  The  teacher 
was  a  gigantic  fellow,  tall  and  powerfully  built,  with  a 
massive  head  and  strong  features.  He  reminded  one  of 
the  magnificent  Porthos  in  the  "Three  Musketeers". 
During  the  first  two  or  three  minutes  of  the  hour,  he 
struck  one  as  being  cold,  almost  apathetic,  but  after  he 
commenced  talking  and  drawing  out  his  students  the 
first  impression  was  soon  dispelled.  Apparently,  his 
mind  was  of  the  same  great  proportions  as  his  frame, 
and  required  some  time  to  gain  momentum.  During  the 
first  five  minutes,  he  made  announcements  of  various 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  61 

texts  to  be  used  as  references.  He  spoke  easily  and  dis- 
tinctly, and  his  voice  was  rich  and  sonorous.  He  began 
his  lecture  proper  as  follows: 

"In  classifying  children  they  are  divided  into  two  class- 
es, the  normal  and  the  defective.  But  there  are  also  some 
cases  which  are  doubtful,  and  these  are  said  to  be  on  the 
border  line.  The  term  border  line  is  merely  a  conven- 
ient refuge  for  ignorance.  The  definiteness  of  such 
cases  will  come  out  in  the  offspring,  and  they  will  show 
whether  these  persons  are  defective  or  normal.  The 
point  is  to  know  this  before  children  are  born." 

Then  he  went  to  show  the  final  tests  which  distinguish 
the  normal  from  the  defective  in  borderline  cases.  Chil- 
dren of  the  same  degree  of  backwardness  of  five  years 
must  be  judged  by  their  potentiality,  not  by  their  ac- 
quisition. The  same  is  true  of  two  children  backward 
at  eight  years,  for  either  or  both  may  be  "aments".  It 
is  during  puberty  that  the  distinction  between  those 
merely  temporarily  backward  and  those  permanently 
backward  becomes  clear. 

"Children  at  puberty,"  he  said,  "have  a  tremendous 
growth  in  brain  tissue  and  fibres ;  they  have  a  new  supply 
of  soldiers  to  be  mobilized,  to  be  drilled  to  fight  the  bat- 
tle of  life.  The  problem  of  backward  children  is  not 
what  they  have  attained,  but  what  is  their  mental  po- 
tentiality for  puberty.  MENTAL  POTENTIALITY 
should  be  written  like  NEW  THOUGHT  with  capital 
betters  to  make  it  look  like  something.  Suppose  we  have 
two  children  of  fifteen  years.  Suppose  both  appear  back- 
ward. Then  what  are  the  problems?  In  this  case  would 
we  examine  their  capacity?" 

"Yes,"  answered  the  class. 

"The  first  that  must  be  done  is  to  remove  all  physical 
defects,  allow  a  certain  period,  so  that  there  has  been 
time  for  adjustment,  then  we  may  examine  their  ca- 
pacity." 

He  was  very  careful  to  make  sure  that  the  terms  used 
were  fully  understood  by  the  class  to  head  off  wrong 
conceptions. 


62  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

"What  is  the  difference  between  amentia  and  demen- 
tia?" he  asked. 

"Amentia  is  the  lack  of  a  fully  developed  mind,"  an- 
swered a  student. 

"Can  an  ament  be  a  dement?" 

"No,"  said  the  class,  "anyone  becoming  a  dement  must 
start  right." 

He  then  commenced  a  discussion  of  the  physical  de- 
fects which  cause  backwardness  among  school  children. 
He  enumerated  a  number  of  these  defects  and  'commenc- 
ed an  exposition  of  adenoids.  This  included  their  defini- 
tion, the  signs  of  their  presence,  and  the  immediate  and 
remote  effects  of  enlarged  adenoids.  The  gong  sounded 
before  he  had  completed  his  talk  on  adenoids. 

During  the  whole  hour  he  had  stood  on  his  feet  behind 
a  lecture  stand.  Occasionally  he  would  turn  to  the  black- 
board to  draw  a  diagram,  make  an  outline  or  write  out 
an  unusual  word,  for  the  purpose  of  eliminating  all  ob- 
scurities of  subject  matter.  In  addition  to  his  gift  of 
clear  exposition  he  possessed  that  most  desirable  quality 
of  a  teacher,  the  knack  of  heading  off  all  possible  mis- 
conceptions and  preventing  twisted  ideas  from  striking 
root  in  his  students'  minds.  He  appeared  to  realize  just 
what  things  were  difficult  to  understand  and  took  special 
pains  to  drive  these  home.  He  had  mastered  the  great 
principles  of  emphasis.  The  students  were  left  in  no  doubt 
as  to  what  was  or  was  not  important.  In  addition,  he 
enlisted  the  cooperation  of  the  class.  The  students' 
minds  worked  in  unison  under  his  guidance  like  a  com- 
pany of  well  drilled  soldiers.  He  asked  them  questions 
and  demanded  their  opinions  on  various  subjects. 

The  teacher  was  winning,  open  and  frank.  He  treated 
the  students  with  an  air  of  intimacy  and  displayed  a 
spirit  of  camaraderie  that  quite  won  their  hearts. 

He  was  saturated  with  his  subject,  with  knowledge 
gained  not  only  from  books,  but  from  laboratories,  clinics 
and  public  schools.  So  easy,  so  fluent  was  his  command 
of  the  subject,  that  he  seemed  like  a  conjurer  who  could 
by  some  power  of  psychic  legerdemain  adapt  the  matter 
to  suit  the  minds  of  every  member  of  the  class.  His  was 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  53 

a  nature  in  which  sympathy  and  knowledge  seemed  in- 
terfused. The  same  intuitive  power  by  which  he  appre- 
hended his  students'  needs  and  difficulties  had  commu- 
nicated itself  to  the  students,  so  that  they  in  their  turn 
were  able  to  perceive  his  meaning  quickly.  This  give- 
and-take  was  like  the  magic  interplay  of  spirits  which 
sometimes  springs  up  between  an  actor  and  his  audience. 
He  was  a  man  of  dynamic  energy,  with  an  active  and 
powerful  mind  and  an  upwelling  sympathy.  His  was  an 
inspiring  and  strengthening  personality,  which  later  fig- 
ures as  one  of  the  four  100%  personalities  noted  in  this 
study. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  25 — Type  3 

It  was  a  course  in  "Rural  Sociology."  The  class  con- 
sisted of  twenty-three  men  and  nine  women,  most  of 
them  mature,  some  middle-aged.  The  teacher  was  a 
short,  thick-set  man  of  about  fifty  years,  jovial  and  im- 
perturbably  good  natured.  His  manner  was  assured, 
simple  and  direct.  From  his  first  statement  it  was  ap- 
parent that  he  was  a  man  of  enthusiasm  and  idealism. 

"If  you  can  meet  a  dynamic  man  for  two  dollars,  do 
so  by  all  means.  I  once  walked  twenty  miles  to  hear 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  .  I  have  made  journeys  to  great 
men  as  to  Meccas,"  he  said  and  commenced  to  recount 
a  number  of  his  similar  experiences. 

Suddenly  he  stopped  short  in  his  discussion  of  this 
subject,  and  apologized  to  the  class  for  having  strayed 
from  the  topic  for  the  day's  lesson.  He  then  commenced 
his  consideration  of  the  lesson,  which  was  an  exposition 
of  the  family  life  on  the  farm.  He  spoke  of  the  dominat- 
ing influences  of  the  man  on  the  farm.  Hitherto,  the 
man  had  lorded  it  over  the  women,  sons  and  daughters, 
who  had  virtually  been  merely  servants.  Now  a  modern 
farm  is  coming  to  resemble  a  business  concern,  for  the 
farmer  has  his  business  office  where  he  keeps  his  ac- 
counts and  carries  on  his  correspondence.  Sons  and 
daughters  are  given  their  own  rooms,  receive  spending 


54  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

money  and  time  off,  while  the  women  are  not  the  drudges 
they  once  were.  Women  are  beginning  to  demand  the 
modernization  of  the  farmhouses,  servants  and  good 
clothes.  Upon  women  depends  the  complete  socializa- 
tion of  farm  life. 

"Farm  life  is  the  bulwark  of  the  home  life  of  the 
nation,"  he  said,  "the  farm  is  the  breeding  ground  of 
people  of  stamina."  He  told  of  an  incident  of  a  horse- 
buyer  who  would  not  buy  a  team  of  horses  which  had 
been  raised  in  Chicago.  He  wanted  nothing  but  country 
bred  horses. 

Just  then  a  beautiful  collie  wandered  into  the  room, 
sniffed  about  and  disappeared. 

"He  is  just  an  auditor,  not  signed  up  yet,"  flashed  out 
the  teacher. 

All  this  was  preliminary  to  a  detailed  consideration  of 
definite  attempts  that  farmers  in  the  state  had  been  mak- 
ing towards  socialization.  Farmers'  Clubs,  Women's 
Clubs,  and  the  Commercial  Clubs  of  Villages  which  wel- 
come the  farmer  were  concrete  examples  of  a  growing 
community  spirit  among  rural  dwellers.  The  teacher  was 
full  of  his  subject,  he  appeared  to  have  worked  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  the  farmers  in  their  attempts  to  or- 
ganize their  clubs.  He  mentioned  the  names  of  many  of 
the  clubs,  knew  personally  the  presidents,  secretaries  and 
prime  movers  in  these  activities.  He  passed  around  pic- 
tures of  members,  officers  and  buildings  of  some  of  the 
clubs  and  of  various  fairs  and  exhibits  which  had  resulted 
from  this  form  of  cooperation. 

His  talk  was  packed  with  good,  hard  common  sense 
and  full  of  concrete  suggestions  as  to  improving  the 
conditions  on  the  farms  and  arousing  and  coordinating 
community  spirit.  His  subject  was  the  breath  of  his 
nostrils. 

He  had  many  amusing  experiences  to  relate  and  his 
talk  was  sprinkled  with  odd  phrases  recurring  again  and 
again.  He  radiated  good  nature  and  sympathy,  laughed 
heartily  at  the  remembrance  of  past  experiences,  and 
was  equally  ready  to  laugh  at  similar  accounts  from  the 
students.  The  class  was  like  a  genial  social  club,  of 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  55 

which  the  teacher  was  the  leader,  who  saw  to  it  that  there 
was  a  definite  program  run-off  per  schedule. 

Some  of  the  teachers  who  possessed  great  intellectual 
power,  high  attainments  and  mastery  of  their  domains  of 
thought  still  appeared  to  lack  proper  emotional  equip- 
ment. They  were  cold,  formal,  distant  and  unsympathet- 
ic. They  dazzled  their  students  with  their  brilliant 
attainments,  but  did  not  win  their  affections  or  arouse 
them  to  great  sustained  effort.  The  two  men  described 
next  were  examples  of  this  type  of  personality. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  26 — Type  2 

It  was  a  class  in  the  "German  Novel."  The  teacher 
was  about  forty  years  old,  tall  and  finely  proportioned. 
His  was  a  serene  countenance  that  betokened  the  pres- 
ence of  a  majestic  intelligence  and  a  lofty  spirit,  of  poise 
and  sincerity,  and  a  pervasive,  tempered  zeal. 

He  lectured  in  German,  a  beautiful,  melodious,  flowing 
German.  His  sentence  structure  was  supple  and  mus- 
cular, his  diction  elevated,  and  his  style  adorned  by  the 
treasures  of  beautiful  figures  of  speech  and  by  jeweled 
utterances  of  noble  souls. 

He  spoke  first  of  the  great  Goethe,  and  commenced 
chiseling  away  the  incrustation  of  fiction  that  concealed 
the  real  Goethe  in  "Dichtung  and  Wahrheit,"  comparing 
the  true  image  with  that  presented  in  "The  Sorrows  of 
Werther"  and  "The  Vicar  of  Sesenheim."  He  compared 
the  other  characters  of  Goethe's  novels  with  their  pro- 
totypes in  real  life,  and  traced  the  similarities  and  dif- 
ferences between  the  related  and  actual  incidents.  The 
various  influences  upon  Goethe  of  other  writers,  Rous- 
seau, Goldsmith,  Richardson,  etc.,  were  brought  out. 

He  read  his  lecture  from  manuscript  fluently  and  clear- 
ly. He  was  careful  to  make  everything  clear  to  the  class. 
He  would  repeat  the  antecedents  of  his  pronouns,  would 
write  out  on  the  board  the  names  of  unfamiliar  characters 
and  people  as  he  came  across  them  in  his  lecture.  His 
discussion  of  Goethe's  novels  showed  an  intimate  know- 


56  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

ledge  of  that  author's  works.  The  teacher's  pertinent 
observations  when  comparing  the  fictitious  with  the  real 
Goethe,  gave  proof  of  extensive  reading  and  scholarly 
research,  and  displayed  exceptional  qualities  of  pene- 
tration and  judgment. 

The  lecture  was  the  finished  product  of  a  highly  gift- 
ed and  well  trained  mind.  It  was  well  suited  to  the  au- 
dience which  consisted  of  mature  students  of  intelligence 
and  apparently  good  training.  To  understand,  it  presup- 
posed a  broad  grasp  of  literary  movements  and  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  Goethe's  works.  Whether  or  not  the 
teacher  had  taken  steps  to  test  the  students'  knowledge 
could  not  be  determined. 

The  one  great  fault  of  the  class  procedure  was  that 
the  teacher  did  not  ask  the  students  any  questions  or 
attempt  to  enlist  their  active  cooperation.  Furthermore, 
his  personality  was  too  cold  and  distant  to  inspire  the 
average  student.  Ordinarily,  this  kind  of  a  lecture  is  a 
poor  vehicle  of  instruction.  The  redeeming  feature  of 
this  particular  lecture  was  the  opportunity  accorded  the 
class  to  sit  and  listen  to  the  polished  expression  of  a 
finely  cultured  mind,  and  to  become  acquainted  with  such 
a  distinctive  and  admirable  personality. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  27 — Type  2 

A  class  in  "The  Crusades"  had  assembled  for  the  day's 
lecture.  At  the  stroke  of  the  gong,  the  teacher  strode  in 
and  seated  himself — for  the  hour — at  the  desk.  He  was 
of  medium  height,  thick  set,  well  past  middle  age,  with 
a  bald  forehead  and  iron  gray  Van  Dyke  beard. 

He  spoke  with  great  deliberation,  his  voice  was  thick 
and  heavy,  with  a  peculiar  rising  inflection  at  the  end  of 
each  sentence.  One  gained  an  impression  of  a  vast  men- 
tal energy  lurking  in  this  physical  bulk.  Preliminary 
to  his  lecture,  he  gave  the  sources  of  his  material.  They 
consisted  of  works  in  French,  German,  English  and 
Latin.  The  one  in  Latin  was  a  translation  of  an  old 
Saracenic  writer,  Ossanna,  a  man,  who  had  lived  about 


57 

one  hundred  years. 

The  teacher  said  he  would  give  the  picture  of  the 
period,  first  from  the  viewpoints  of  the  Saracen  writers, 
Ossanna  among  them,  and  then  from  the  Christian  chron- 
iclers. He  would  give  the  facts  and  the  class  might 
draw  their  own  conclusions,  and  determine  what  was  the 
real  condition  of  life  during  the  Crusades.  The  period 
discussed  was  that  succeeding  the  .Crusaders'  conquest 
of  Jerusalem,  when  they  were  engaged  in  keeping  the 
Saracens  at  bay.  He  related  the  events  of  the  life  of  the 
Saracenic  author,  Ossanna,  and  spoke  of  his  education 
and  his  activities.  Then  he  quoted  some  of  Ossanna's 
observations  about  the  Christians  and  the  Saracens. 
Apparently  Ossanna  had  found  plenty  of  opportunity  to 
acquire  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  Christians. 

"This  was  easy  enough,"  said  the  teacher,  "because 
there  was  probably  less  righting  in  Syria  during  this 
period  of  the  Crusades  than  in  Western  Europe." 

Ossanna  told  of  the  Christians'  knowledge  of  medicine 
and  compared  it  with  that  of  the  Arabs.  The  Arabs  were 
very  skillful  in  the  use  of  drugs  and  herbs  to  cure  wounds, 
but  the  Christians  used  the  axe  to  get  results  as  soon  as 
possible.  Amputations  were  the  fashion.  Sometimes 
the  Christians  had  eruptions  on  their  bodies,  and  since 
they  appeared  on  their  faces  and  noses,  the  habit  of  the 
axe  occasioned  some  trying  experiences. 

He  told  how  the  pious  French  scholars  who  translated 
the  Saracenic  books  had  made  many  amusing  mistakes. 
In  their  excessive  zeal  they  had  interjected  expressions 
of  praise  or  blame  and  often  would  transpose  the  mean- 
ing of  bless  and  curse.  Hence,  often  there  is  found  the 
expression,  "May  Allah  curse  them,"  addressed  to  the 
Christians  and  this  "May  Allah  bless  them,"  when  in- 
tended for  the  Saracens.  For  instance,  in  one  place 
Ossanna  is  rendered  by  chroniclers  as  follows :  "I  visited 
my  friend,  the  Frank,  may  Allah  curse  him!" 

The  Saracens  had  a  vast  contempt  for  Franks,  especial- 
ly for  their  amusements,  and  made  sport  of  their  piggeries 
and  pig-catching.  "Wherever  you  find  Franks,  you  will 
find  pigs,"  they  said.  "May  Allah  forgive  me  for  men- 


58  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

tioning  such  a  vile  object,"  were  the  words  of  a  sheik, 
when  speaking  of  a  Frank. 

A  Frank  who  had  been  wounded,  wanted  to  see  the 
Saracen  who  had  hit  him  such  a  tremendous  crack.  The 
Saracens  gave  him  a  safe  conduct  to  satisfy  his  pardon- 
able curiosity. 

"Whenever  a  Christian  writer  wants  to  refer  to  a 
Syrian,  he  gives  him  the  name  of  some  Philistine  or 
heretic,"  said  the  teacher.  "He  is  correct,  all  the  heresies 
of  the  world  have  originated  there." 

He  also  gave  the  Christians'  impressions  of  the  Saracens 
and  of  their  own  life.  The  manner  and  customs  of  the 
Saracens  had  a  beneficial  effect  upon  the  Christians. 
They  gained  fineness  and  polish,  and  learned  many  of  the 
courtesies  and  comforts  of  life  through  their  contact 
with  the  Saracens. 

The  teacher  had  a  tenacious  grip  on  his  subject.  A 
vast  number  of  concrete  facts  and  specific  details  were 
steadily  brought  forth  to  reconstruct  the  pictures  of  this 
bygone  age.  It  is  true  that  while  sometimes  the  out- 
lines of  the  pictures  were  confused,  nevertheless  one 
could  not  help  admiring  the  wealth  of  material  the  teacher 
poured  out  with  such  quiet,  inexhaustible  energy.  There 
seemed  no  end  to  his  knowledge.  One  imagined  he 
could  sit  and  multiply  details  after  details  for  years.  And 
there  he  sat,  imperturbable,  impassive  and  immovable  as 
a  great  statue.  He  did  not  even  smile  at  his  own  flashes 
of  irony.  Neither  lips  nor  eyes  betrayed  the  presence  of 
anvthing  but  a  settled  gravity.  His  was  a  calm  and  ma- 
jestic nature  whose  vast  activities  proceeded  leisurely, 
yet  persistently,  irresistibly  carried  along  by  the  momen- 
tum of  its  previous  activity.  The  finest  teaching  results 
were  not  obtained  because  of  a  cold  and  unsympathetic 
personality  accentuated  by  his  sitting  throughout  the  hour 
and  giving  his  students  no  opportunity  or  need  to  show 
if  they  were  grasping  his  masterly  presentation. 


Others  of  the  eight  ablest  teachers  were  of  less  com- 
manding intellects,  but  keen,  alert,  flexible  and  sympa- 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  69 

thetic.    They  were  men  of  fine  spirit,  charming  and  witty. 
The  three  men  next  described  belong  to  this  type. 

Teacher  Personality  No>.  28 — Type  3 

"The  pageant  is  the  drama  of  the  history  and  life  of  a 
community  showing  how  the  character  of  that  community 
as  a  community  has  been  developed ;  is  W.  C.  Langdon's 
definition  of  a  pageant,"  began  the  teacher  in  a  class  in 
"Festivals  and  Pageants." 

"Here  is  another  definition,  formulated  by  Lewis  W. 
Parker :  A  pageant  is  a  representation  of  the  history  of  a 
town  from  the  earliest  period  to  some  later  point  forming 
a  fitting  climax.  It  is  not  a  stage  play ;  it  is  the  lofty  and 
dignified  panorama  of  the  town's  history."  He  read 
rapidly  and  distinctly.  The  man  was  alert,  his  manner 
and  appearance  were  charming,  poised  and  vigorous. 
His  face  was  oval,  its  shape  accentuated  by  a  pointed 
beard,  light  brown  in  color.  The  face  was  sensitive,  but 
expressed  resolution,  and  that  steel-like  strength  which 
characterizes  Frenchmen  of  fine  spirit.  His  smile  had 
an  underlying  seriousness. 

He  read  two  other  definitions  of  the  pageant,  and 
asked  the  class  to  name  the  pageants  they  had  heard  of 
or  seen.  Then  as  the  various  pageants  were  mentioned, 
the  students  would  compare  their  characteristics  with 
those  called  for  by  the  definitions.  One  after  the  other 
he  called  on  the  members  of  the  class, — twenty-four  in 
number.  The  Rockford-  and  the  Whitewater  pageants, 
the  pageant  of  the  Star  Spangled  Banner,  the  pageant  of 
the  missionary,  the  St.  Louis  pageant,  and  the  mask  in 
La  Crosse  were  mentioned  among  many  others.  Some 
of  the  students  could  not  think  of  any. 

As  they  compared  the  characteristics  of  the  pageants 
mentioned  with  that  demanded  by  the  definitions  they 
discovered  that  the  illustrations  did  not  fit  the  definition. 

"All  right,"  said  the  teacher,  "We  must  change  the 
definition  to  fit  the  reality."  He  spoke  of  the  Pageant 
of  Nations,  which  was  not  an  orthodox  pageant. 


60  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

"One  always  thinks  of  the  pomp  and  circumstances  of 
the  pageant.  There  is  a  great  display,  a  long  procession 
of  persons,"  he  went  on.  "That  is  what  was  meant  by 
pageants  before  Mr.  Parker  came  along  and  defined  it." 

He  was  dexterous  in  his  contact  with  his  students. 
He  had  an  intuitive  knack  of  setting  them  at  ease,  of  win- 
ning their  confidence  and  enlisting  their  cooperation.  A 
genial  tolerance  and  a  ready  open-mindedness  were  the 
salient  characteristics  of  his  personality.  He  had  a  subtle 
air  of  deference  towards  the  women  which  quite  reassur- 
ed them  and  set  them  at  ease.  His  wit  was  tinged  with 
a  delicate  whimsicality.  It  was  pleasing  and  stimulating 
to  sit  in  his  class. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  29 — Type  3 

It  was  a  course  in  "Shakespeare's  Historical  Plays." 
The  teacher,  whose  physiognomy  resembled  that  of  a  Jap- 
anese, was  a  small,  dark  man  who  wore  glasses  with  thick 
lenses.  His  appearance  and  mannerisms  were  those  of 
the  traditional  scholar. 

The  class  work  for  the  day  appeared  to  consist  largely 
of  a  detailed  study  of  the  style  and  diction  of  Shake- 
speare's "King  Richard  II".  Peculiarities  of  word  usage, 
striking  phrases,  unusual  meters,  and  all  the  idiosyncra- 
sies of  its  language  were  noted.  He  traced  the  geneology 
of  many  of  the  words  rapidly  and  crisply.  He  seemed  to 
have  a  good  grasp  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  Latin  and  a  pre- 
cise and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  philology.  He 
stated  simply  that  he  had  bicycled  many  times  over  Eng- 
land. He  appeared  intimately  acquainted  with  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  scene  of  the  play  and  described  the  places 
mentioned  in  the  play.  He  had  a  very  good  map  of 
England  on  the  wall,  and  referred  constantly  to  this, 
pointing  out  locations  of  towns  and  castles,  streams, 
hills,  valleys,  parks,  and  manors.  It  was  very  illuminating 
to  listen  to  his  quiet  expositions  of  English  geography. 

The  teacher's  mannerisms  were  peculiar,  but  not  dis- 
tressing. When  searching  for  a  word  or  idea,  he  would 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  61 

roll  his  eyes  toward  the  ceiling,  and  then  suddenly  jerk 
his  head  down  and  glance  sharply  at  the  class.  Some- 
times he  would  clasp  his  hands  together  with  his  arms 
extended  stiffly  in  front.  His  speech  and  all  his  motions 
were  sharp,  quick  and  precise. 

His  knowledge  of  English  political  history,  of  the  cus- 
toms and  laws  of  the  period,  appeared  to  be  as  exact  and 
exhaustive  as  his  philological  and  geographical  lore. 

One  might  have  supposed  that  this  leisurely  precision, 
this  exhaustive  attention  to  minute  details,  would  prove 
extremely  tedious  to  the  class,  but  the  reverse  was  true. 
The  class  seemed  imbued  with  the  same  quiet  passion 
for  accuracy  that  characterized  the  teacher.  It  was  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  impatient,  slipshod  work  done  in 
many  other  classes,  in  which  not  nearly  the  same  atten- 
tion was  demanded  of  the  students. 

This  interest  of  the  class  was  probably  due  to  a  certain 
exactness,  keenness,  and  crispness  of  the  teacher's  mind. 
He  demanded  these  same  qualities  of  his  students,  and 
encouraged  them  to  point  out  their  independent  discov- 
eries and  observations  of  the  peculiarities  of  language. 
The  class  had  gained  considerable  power  in  observing 
and  thinking  for  themselves.  When  he  called  for  reci- 
tations the  students  would  respond  quickly  and  accurate- 
ly. Their  senses  of  sight  and  hearing  were  on  the  alert  to 
observe  every  motion  and  word  of  the  teacher.  It  was 
splendid  training  for  these  hurly-burly,  impatient  young 
Americans  to  work  with  a  man  of  such  patient  exactness 
and  penetration,  of  such  precise  and  exhaustive  know- 
ledge. His  mental  qualities  were  productive  because  of 
engaging  personality  elements,  sympathy,  interest  in  in- 
dividual students  and  sincerity. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  30 — Type  5 

A  dark  little  Frenchman  was  conducting  a  class  in 
French  conversation.  He  had  a  black  beard  which  he 
caressed  with  his  right  hand,  while  his  black,  snappy 
eyes  glanced  rapidly  about.  He  was  alert,  vivacious  and 


62  PBRSONALITYCULTURB 

witty. 

He  spoke  only  French — very  little  English  was  used 
even  by  the  students  in  the  class — and  gesticulated  con- 
tinually. All  his  motions  were  quick  and  sharp  like  those 
of  a  wild  creature  of  the  woods.  His  habit  of  tugging  at 
his  beard  would  occasionally  blur  his  words,  interfering 
to  a  small  extent  with  the  clearness  of  his  enunciation. 
Usually,  however,  it  was  easy  to  understand  what  he 
said. 

It  was  the  thirteenth  of  July.  The  teacher  reminded 
the  class  that  the  morrow  would  be  the  fourteenth,  the 
French  Fourth  of  July. 

''You  may  not  show  sympathy  towards  France  tomor- 
row in  this  building,  but  you  may  do  so  outside  if  you 
choose."  He  spoke  in  French.  He  announced  a  lecture 
in  French  that  was  to  be  held  on  the  morrow,  and  spoke 
of  arrangements  for  a  picnic  of  the  French  classes. 

Then  he  called  on  a  girl  to  take  his  place  behind  the 
desk.  The  two  exchanged  positions;  she  to  assume  the 
role  of  the  teacher,  he  to  become  a  student.  The  girl 
read  an  original  story  in  French,  in  which  she  told  about 
a  canoe  trip  on  the  lake,  a  storm  coming  up,  the  excite- 
ment of  paddling  to  shore,  the  return  home  and  the 
mother's  anxiety  about  her  daughter's  safety.  It  was 
well  done,  executed  in  fine,  free  strokes,  short,  but  with 
vivid  description  and  sharp  flashes  of  observation.  The 
language  used  was  charming.  She  had  a  fine  feeling  for 
apt  words  and  phrases. 

The  class  listened  attentively  during  the  reading. 
When  she  had  finished  reading,  she  asked  a  few  questions 
based  on  the  story  and  called  on  various  students  to 
answer  them.  The  students  were  ready  with  replies, 
some  serious  and  answering  the  question  directly,  others 
evasive,  playing  on  words  and  twisting  the  meaning. 
The  impromptu  teacher  would  reprove  the  flippant  with 
mock  sternness,  while  the  impromptu  student  would  nod 
his  head  approvingly,  call  "bravo"  and  flash  out  a  witty 
remark.  When  the  latter  was  called  on  to  recite — as  he 
sometimes  was,  although  the  school  mistress  did  not 
show  an  overdue  partiality,  he  would  break  out  into  a 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  63 

flood  of  French,  ironic,  and  satirically  catching  her  up  on 
the  improbabilities  of  the  story.  But  the  young  instruc- 
tress would  brook  no  insubordination. 

"Listen,  Monsieur,"  she  would  break  in,  "you  forget 
yourself.  Remember  to  whom  you  are  speaking.  Do  not 
become  rude."  (All  this  was  in  French.) 

"Ah,  to  be  sure,  Mademoiselle.  Pardon  me.  Truly  I 
have  forgotten  myself.  I  should  have  remembered  that 
women  are  goddesses,  above  all  criticism  and  reproach," 
returned  the  offender,  cleverly  shifting  the  implication 
of  her  reproof  that  respect  was  due  her  as  the  teacher. 
He  stood  up,  bowed  humbly,  and  seated  himself  meekly. 
It  was  delightful,  the  whole  class  was  permeated  with  a 
fine  spirit,  and  most  of  the  students  seemed  to  catch  this 
fine  French  spirit  of  raillery  and  respond  to  it.  Nimble 
tongues  flung  back  sharp  retorts,  and  quick,  glinting  ideas 
were  shuttled  back  and  forth. 

Another  girl  was  called  on  to  read  her  story  after  the 
discussion  of  the  first  was  exhausted.  She  had  written 
up  an  incident  about  a  little  girl,  Rosette,  who  was  very 
poor  and  very  plain  in  her  appearance.  But  Rosette  had 
a  very  lively  imagination,  and  felt  keenly  her  poverty  and 
plainness.  She  was  always  imagining  herself  rich  and 
beautiful,  always  popular  and  receiving  attentions  from 
a  host  of  admirers.  One  day  she  found  a  beautiful  rose 
on  the  street  which  some  rich  lady  had  probably  dropped 
from  a  carriage.  Soon  after  she  met  a  number  of  her 
girl  friends  and  told  them  that  her  rich  young  adorer 
had  sent  her  a  dozen  of  these  roses.  Her  companions 
would  not  believe  her,  she  must  prove  it,  and  they  would 
accompany  Rosette  home  to  find  out.  They  did  so,  but 
discovered  no  flowers.  "Menteuse,"  they  called  to  the 
little  deceiver  and  left  her  in  high  disdain. 

The  story  was  cleverly  handled,  and  aroused  an  ani- 
mated discussion.  At  first  the  authoress  maintained 
command  of  the  situation.  But  soon  the  students  broke 
away  from  her  control,  and  demanded  to  know  more  a- 
bout  this  little  girl.  Where  did  she  live — what  were  her 
parents  like — had  she  read  much — what  was  to  become  of 
her — did  her  habit  of  lying  grow  on  her — etc.  The  teach- 


64  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

er  was  bombarded  with  questions.  She  could  not  answer 
them  all.  The  class  swung  into  a  discussion  of  the  hor- 
rors of  lying.  Some  said  it  was  dreadful,  others  said  it 
was  necessary,  that  clever  lying  was  a  virtue.  'Rosette's 
fault  was  that  she  was  found  out.  It  was  very  amusing. 
The  whole  class  had  become  infected  with  a  spirit  of 
delicate  humor. 

If  a  teacher  is  to  be  judged  by  the  spirit  of  indepen- 
dence and  the  self-activity  of  his  students,  and  by  the 
personality  his  students  evince,  surely  this  teacher  de- 
served a  high  reward. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  31 — Type  1 

The  next  man  described  evinced  the  most  consummate 
mastery  of  the  art  of  teaching  that  the  visitor  has  ever 
observed.  Greater  intellects  and  stronger  personalities 
have  been  encountered,  and  a  vaster  display  of  attainment 
witnessed,  but  never  one  who  was  so  indisputably  a  mas- 
ter of  his  craft.  His  is  the  fourth  100%  personality  among 
the  seventy-two  instructors  here  reported. 

A  class  of  fifty  students,  only  four  of  them  men,  was 
assembled  for  the  last  recitation  of  the  summer  session. 
It  was  a  course  in  the  "Teaching  of  German."  The 
teacher  entered  the  classroom  promptly  on  the  hour.  He 
was  a  tall,  angular  man.  As  he  paced  nervously  back 
and  forh  across  the  room  with  soft,  springy  steps,  he 
seemed  the  embodiment  of  alertness.  His  mind  possessed 
a  leaping,  flashing  energy.  Every  eye  in  the  room  re- 
turned the  glow  of  his  eyes'  fire. 

"I  shall  sum  up  briefly  the  ground  we  have  covered  in 
this  course,"  he  began,  as  he  glanced  at  some  meager 
notes.  Then  in  a  few  statements  he  had  summarizd  the 
work  of  the  whole  summer  session.  It  was  a  tour  de 
force  that  bespoke  great  energy  and  brilliance  of  mind. 

fie  then  tossed  up  a  few  questions  and  called  on  stu- 
dents to  express  their  views.  The  students  attacked  the 
problem  with  the  dash  and  skill  of  trained  soldiers. 

''Let  us  consider  a  few  questions  on  modern  language 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  65 

instruction  which  have  been  sent  me  by  teachers  through- 
out the  state,"  he  said. 

"The  first  question  is :  How  much  stress  should  be  put 
on  concert  reading,  and  what  is  the  advantage  of  it?" 
He  called  on  a  number  of  students  by  name. 

''It  will  encourage  weaker  students  who  are  timid," 
said  one  student.  "The  muscles  of  the  voice  are  trained, 
it  affords  opportunity  for  motor  expression,  and  saves 
time,"  came  from  a  second  student.  "It  checks  faulty 
pronunciation  of  a  certain  few  pupils  and  they  get  strong- 
er auditory  sensation,"  said  a  third.  "It  keeps  the  class 
awake,"  remarked  the  fourth  student.  The  students  had 
answered  clearly  and  concisely. 

The  teacher  then  gave  his  view  on  the  subject.  "I 
should  use  it  mainly  for  the  first  and  fourth  reasons,"  he 
said,  "it  encourages  the  timid  and  keeps  the  class  awake. 
The  last  reason  is  the  most  salient  one.  Again  if  you 
have  a  large  class  to  deal  with,  in  concert  recitation 
you  give  them  all  a  chance.  If  you  have  individuals  who 
are  particularly  handicapped,  you  must  speak  to  them 
after  class.  You  ought  not  spend  too  much  time  with 
individuals,  for  it  is  robbing  the  class  of  its  time.  A 
knowledge  of  phonetics  comes  in  handy  at  such  a  place. 
Sometimes  the  trouble  is  physical  and  requires  medi- 
cal aid,  or  perhaps  it  is  incurable." 

lie  took  up  another  slip  of  paper.  "The  second  ques- 
tion is:  What  do  you  think  of  work  at  the  board,  is  it 
mainly  a  means  for  drilling  or  is  it  a  good  way  to  save 
work  on  the  part  of  the  teacher?"  The  instructor  then 
called  upon  various  students  for  their  opinions. 

"I  would  send  them  to  the  board  just  to  write  the 
sentences,"  said  one. 

"Would  you  consider  it  a  crime  to  write  a  declension 
on  the  board?"  asked  the  teacher. 

"No,"  returned  the  student. 

"Have  the  students  put  a  whole  declension  on  the 
board,  not  a  small  part,"  continued  the  teacher,  "it  is 
easier  to  retain  the  whole,  although  it  is  possibly  easier 
to  learn  the  small  part." 

"I  should  send  two  or  three  to  the  front  board,"  vol- 


66  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

unteered  a  student. 

"I  should  send  two  or  three  to  the  back  board,"  re- 
marked the  teacher. 
"Why?" 

"So  as  not  to  distract  the  other  students." 
"But  the  other  students  want  to  see  their  work,"  ob- 
jected another  of  the  students. 

"But  we  do  not  want  them  to  do  this,  we  want  the  rest 
of  the  class  to  be  occupied  during  this  time,"  replied  the 
teacher.  "Take  the  example  of  a  mixed  class,  of  Anglo- 
Americans  and  German-Americans.  Give  a  good  deal 
of  outside  reading  to  the  German-Americans,  have  them 
write  their  resumes  in  German,  keep  the  pupils  busy 
and  there  will  be  no  need  for  discipline." 

Another  student  volunteered.  "The  purpose  of  the 
board  work  should  be  to  give  tests  in  spelling.  If  one  or 
two  were  deficient,  1  would  give  them  individual  atten- 
tion." This  answer  did  not  seem  acceptable,  for  the 
class  demurred  strongly. 

"What  is  the  objection?"  asked  the  teacher. 
"Because  you  are  taking  the  time  of  the  class  for  the 
benefit  of  the  few." 

"Would  you  send  the  poorer  or  the  better  students  to 
the  board?"  asked  the  teacher. 

"I  should  send  the  better  students  to  the  board,  for 
they  would  work  faster  and  save  time,"  was  the  answer. 
"I  would  send  the  poorer  students  to  the  board,"  said 
another,  "for  then  their  mistakes  are  brought  out  more 
clearly.  If  the  pupils  make  a  mistake,  then  the  correc- 
tion of  it  is  striking,  hence  I  should  send  the  poor  stu- 
dents." 

"It  would  be  better  for  the  pupils  if  they  did  go  to 
the  board,  because  otherwise  they  do  not  get  the  mus- 
cular action  of  writing,  I  should  give  them  assignments 
in  rotation  and  give  everyone  a  chance,"  was  another 
opinion.  Others  had  their  ideas:  "It  is  better  to  correct 
the  oral  work,  because  then  the  mistake  or  wrong  idea 
would  not  have  time  to  take  root  or  make  a  permanent 
impression."  "The  more  who  do  board  work  the  better, 
for  pupils  like  justice."  "Board  work  gives  justice  to 


PERSONALITIES  PLUS  67 

those  who  are  poor  in  pronunciation,  who  can  express 
themselves  in  writing." 

There  was  a  flood  of  conflicting  opinions.  "Shall  I 
settle  this  strike?"  interrupted  the  teacher  smilingly. 
"Let  me  tell  you  that  I  believe  in  board  work.  I  should 
send  the  pupils  in  rotation.  I  should  give  harder  sen- 
tences to  the  brighter  pupils.  Writing  fixes  things,  makes 
a  more  permanent  impression.  This  gives  justice  to  the 
pupil  who  does  not  pronounce  well.  But  don't  utilize 
the  whole  board,  giving  an  assignment  to  each  pupil,  for 
then  you  spend  too  much  time  correcting  all  the  mistakes, 
and  you  will  get  nothing  but  board  work  done  during  the 
hour.  I  should  treat  the  class  like  one  in  mathematics 
and  give  more  credit  to  those  who  do  more  work." 

A  number  of  other  questions  were  discussed  in  a  simi- 
lar fashion. 

It  was  a  dramatic  display  of  teaching  personality  and 
efficiency.  The  teacher  stood  on  his  feet  during  the 
whole  hour.  His  whole  manner  and  attitude  expressed 
assurance,  resourcefulness  and  sagacity.  He  was  like  a 
great  general  in  battle,  who  was  marshalling  his  force 
for  a  vigorous  attack.  His  students  were  like  well  drilled 
soldiers,  awake,  trained  to  think,  to  speak,  to  defend 
their  own  opinion  and  criticise  severely  those  of  others. 
Amid  this  lively  rivalry,  the  teacher  stood  alive  to  the 
weight,  the  bearing  and  the  shrewdness  of  every  thrust 
given  and  of  every  defense  made.  Then  after  the  skir- 
mish was  over,  he  would  rapidly  seize  the  main  points 
of  the  discussion  and  combine  them  in  a  final  summary. 

The  class  gave  proof  of  great  cumulative  progress. 
The  minds  of  the  students  had  been  trained  to  think  in 
similar  terms,  to  watch  with  a  hawk's  eye  the  progress 
of  the  recitation,  to  pounce  upon  the  essentials,  to  attack 
the  vulnerable  and  to  defend  that  of  real  value.  The 
keen,  ready  judgments  of  the  students  were  based  on 
well  grounded  principles  of  pedagogy, — the  principles  of 
motor  expression,  of  preventing  diffused  attention,  of  the 
utilization  of  all  the  senses  in  learning,  etc.  In  addition 
the  students  had  a  clear  realization  of  practical  problems 
of  the  classroom  and  the  mechanics  of  recitations.  Dur- 


68 


PERSONALITYCULTURE 


ing  these  six  weeks  the  teacher  had  implanted  the  basic 
principles  of  classroom  procedure,  and  had  trained  his 
students  to  apply  them  skillfully  to  concrete  situations. 
The  man  was  tall,  rather  gaunt,  with  high  cheek  bones, 
and  quick  eyes.  His  smile  was  like  the  smile  of  a  lovely 
landscape, — a  smile  that  opened  the  vista  of  all  the  earn- 
estness, the  kindliness,  the  humor,  the  sweetness  of  a 
lifetime  of  active,  purposeful  and  beautiful  living.  Here 
was  a  man  purged  of  puerile  vanity,  a  man  of  whose 
character  modesty  was  an  integral  and  unconscious  qual- 
ity. His  personality  was  magnetic  and  powerfully  at- 
tractive. He  received  you  into  the  splendid  halls  of  his 
nature,  as  one  peer  meets  another,  with  a  ready  and  im- 
plicit confidence  that  was  a  poignant  exhilaration.  The 
visitor  left  this  class  with  the  conviction  that  here  was 
one  of  nature's  noblemen,  whose  splendid  intellectual 
gifts,  whose  broad,  fervent  sympathies  and  dynamic  zeal 
were  whole  heartedly  devoted  to  the  task  of  illuminating 
the  minds  and  energizing  the  wills  of  his  students  and 
fellow  beings. 


//  personality  can  win  appointment,  pro- 
motion, dismissal 

If  it  makes  one  such  a  good  fellow  that 
his  time  is  wasted  in  good  fellowship 

If  it  causes  students  to  flock  to  or  from 
an  instructor's  course 

If  it  draws  students  like  a  magnet  for 
conference 

If  it  wins  confidence 

If  it  compels  and  expresses  thoroughness 

Why,  pray,  is  it  impossible  to  describe  itf 

Self  Surveys  by  Colleges  and  Universities, 
P.  274 


CHAPTER    V 
PERSONALITY  AND  TEACHER  TRAINING 

1'he  beneficiaries  or  maleficiaries  of  the  thirty-one  per- 
sonalities thus  far  described  were,  with  few  exceptions, 
students  who  were  seeking  help  for  use  in  teaching. 
Most  of  them  had  taught,  were  about  to  teach  again  the 
next  autumn,  and  were  spending  their  vacation  at  the 
feet  of  advertised  masters.  The  significance  of  this  fact 
is  accentuated  when  we  remember  that  "teachers  teach 
as  they  are  taught  not  as  they  are  told  to  teach." 

Besides  courses  in  subject  matter  for  teachers  there 
were  twenty-two  courses  in  how  to  teach  different  sub- 
jects like  history,  mathematics,  literature,  composition, 
public  speaking,  training  the  atypical,  etc.  One  natur- 
ally expected  the  highest  type  of  personality  and  of 
teaching  in  these  courses  on  how  to  teach,  work  which 
would  illustrate  most  clearly  and  forcefully  those  methods 
and  precepts  which  would  be  described  to  teacher-stu- 
dents. Unfortunately,  the  observations  did  not  justify 
such  expectations.  Of  twenty-two  teachers  of  teaching 
only  three  were  in  the  first  class  exhibited  at  this  same 
institution ;  five  were  of  high  grade  personality ;  six  were 
mediocre ;  and  eight  because  of  defective  personality  and 
technique  were  doing  seemingly  futile  or  ineffective  work. 

Personality  elements  that  can  never  in  fairness  to  de- 
mocracy's education  be  set  to  teaching  teachers  were 
prominently  exposed  such  as :  affectation,  flippancy,  su- 
perficiality, carelessness,  procrastination,  inertness,  slav- 
ish devotion  to  mechanical  routine,  lack  of  openminded- 
ness,  coldness  and  formality  of  manner,  pretense,  stupid- 
ity, diffusiveness,  laxity  and  tediousness. 


Of  twenty-two  instructors  whose  only  advertised  pur- 
pose  was   to   teach   others   how   to   teach,    seven   were 


70  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

extremely  careless  and  indolent.  They  came  to  class  al- 
most wholly  unprepared.  They  had  not  sharpened  their 
impressions  of  the  subject,  or  reviewed  their  material 
before  coming  to  class,  but  relied  on  old  smooth  worn 
impressions  and  knowledge  gained  years  ago. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  21 — Type  5 

One  example  of  this  fault  was  the  teacher  who  was 
giving  the  course  in  the  "Teaching  of  Literature",  men- 
tioned on  page  44.  The  class  consisted  of  seventy 
students,  most  of  whom  appeared  to  be  teachers  of  con- 
siderable experience. 

The  teacher  commenced  talking  about  the  "Merchant 
of  Venice."  He  propounded  and  answered  several  ques- 
tions in  regard  to  it: 

1 — "Who  is  the  hero  of  the  play,  Antonio  or  Shylock? 
Probably  Shylock,  for  no  actor  stars  as  Antonio 
or  Bassanio." 

2 — "Is  the  play  a  comedy  or  a  tragedy?  Did  Shake- 
speare intend  it  as  either,  or  did  his  play  get  away 
from  him?  Probably  the  latter  was  the  case." 
3 — "When  does  the  play  become  serious,  cease  being 
comic,  and  enter  the  realm  of  the  tragic?  When 
Jessica  elopes." 

A — "How  serious  is  Shylock's  intention  to  exact  the  pound 
of  flesh — that  is,  why  did  he  exact  the  bond  or  loan 
the  money?  Probably  for  two  reasons,  first,  to  humble 
Antonio,  and  shut  his  mouth,  and  second,  to  harass 
him.  These  less  tragic  reasons  are  crystallized  into 
an  avowed  revenge  when  Jessica  elopes." 
5 — "What  of  the  character  of  Bassanio?  Teachers  must 
not  let  high  school  pupils  become  enamoured  of  Bas- 
sanio. He  is  a  great  calf."  The  students  laughed. 
"But  one  should  not  be  too  harsh  with  Bassanio 
either." 

6 — "How  far  shall  the  plot  be  studied?  Not  deeply — 
just  indicate  the  four  plots  and  see  how  they  are  con- 
nected." 


PERSONALITY  AND  TEACHER  TRAINING  71 

During  the  first  part  of  the  hour  he  was  at  ease  and 
held  the  attention  of  the  class  admirably.  He  appeared 
to  have  a  fairly  fresh  and  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  play.  But  when  he  tried  to  quote  passages  illus- 
trative of  his  points,  he  failed  lamentably.  He  did  not 
have  his  text  at  hand  to  read  the  passages  to  the  class, 
hence  was  unable  to  quote. 

The  latter  part  of  the  hour  was  spent  in  discussing 
Milton.  Here  he  made  less  headway  for  his  grasp  on 
the  matter  was  poor  and  his  presentation  lacked  clear- 
ness and  grasp  of  details.  He  had  forgotten  to  bring  his 
copy  of  Milton,  he  said,  and  would  have  to  rely  upon 
his  memory.  But  his  memory  played  him  false.  He 
mentioned  the  poems  of  Milton  that  should  be  read  in 
class, — "L'Allegro",  "II  Penseroso",  the  sonnet  on 
"Blindness",  and  the  first  book  of  "Paradise  Lost". 
He  had  purposely  left  out  "Comus",  he  said,  since  that 
was  rather  unsatisfactory  for  high  school  pupils. 

"What  shall  we  look  for  in  Milton?"  he  continued. 
"First,  the  beauty  of  the  cadence  of  sound.  This  should 
be  brought  out  by  good  oral  reading.  The  teacher  her- 
self would  be  able  to  do  this.  Little  is  accomplished  by 
poor  oral  reading.  Don't  let  poor  readers  spoil  Milton. 
You  must  not  develop  reading  at  the  expense  of  Milton." 

At  this  point  he  tried  to  quote  Milton's  sonnet  on 
"Blindness"  as  illustrative  of  his  point,  but  he  could 
scarcely  stumble  through  it.  Then  he  spoke  of  the  grand- 
eur of  Milton's  verse,  its  uplift  and  biblical  elevation, 
but  gave  no  concrete  examples. 

He  was  an  experienced  teacher,  well  versed  in  his  sub- 
ject, but  had  neglected  to  prepare  himself  adequately  for 
his  class.  He  had  not  only  neglected  to  refresh  his  mem- 
ory but  had  forgotten  to  bring  to  class  copies  of  the  works 
to  which  he  was  referring.  It  is  small  wonder  that 
students  resort  to  bluffing  and  deception. 


There  were  five  examples  of  colorless  and  inert  per- 
sonalities wholly  controlled  by  old  fixed  habits  of  thought. 
The  recitations  consisted  mostly  of  fact  questions  and 


72  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

answers.  Very  few  questions  called  for  anything  but 
sheer  memory  processes.  Judgment,  reasoning,  compar- 
ison, and  contrast,  induction  and  deduction  were  in  these 
classes  as  superfluous  as  a  third  thumb. 

Teacher  Personality  Na  40 — Type  8 

The  teacher  was  giving  a  course  called  the  "Influence 
of  Geography  on  American  History."  It  was  an  oral  quiz 
of  the  first  week's  work,  so  that  the  visitor  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  discover  the  nature  of  the  subject  matter  cov- 
ered. The  teacher  was  a  young  man  of  perhaps  thirty- 
five  years,  medium  stature  and  of  slight  frame.  He 
lacked  animation  and  force.  His  nature  was  cold  and 
impassive. 

Although  his  questions  called  for  knowledge  of  the 
most  elementary  character,  the  teacher-students  halted 
at  answering  them.  It  was  as  though  they  possessed 
merely  a  collection  of  hard,  angular  fragments  of  facts 
and  had  difficulty  in  picking  out  those  which  would  have 
any  relation  to  the  question.  The  teacher's  attitude  was 
shifty  and  wheedling.  He  tried  to  coax  out  the  answers 
by  a  leechlike  process,  but  the  difficulty  was  that  he 
applied  his  process  to  undigested,  inorganic  masses  in- 
stead of  assimilated,  organic  material.  What  he  needed 
was  some  sort  of  a  magnet  to  pick  up  the  bits  of  infor- 
mation he  had  scattered  in  the  minds  of  his  students. 

Here  again  was  a  teacher  syphoning  a  vacuum.  "What 
else?"  "What  more?"  were  constantly  in  use  during  the 
whole  of  the  hour.  The  recitation  was  a  series  of  me- 
chanical shocks  and  jolts  on  the  memories  of  the  students 
to  start  a  train  of  thought. 

The  following  represents  a  portion  of  the  recitation: 

T.     Why  did  Europe  seek  the  tropical  products  of  the 
Orient? 

S.     They  sought  mostly  luxuries. 

T.     (The  teacher  called  on  another  student.) 

S.     The  difference  of  the  products  of  the  two  coun- 
tries explained  it.  Their  mineral  products  differed 


PERSONALITY   AND   TEACHER  TRAINING  73 

to  a  considerable  degree.   The  Crusades  increased 
Europe's  desire  to  know  the  Orient;  to  know  the 
scientific  advancement  of  agriculture. 
T.     How  about  the  civilization  of  the  Orient? 
S.     Civilization    in    the    Orient    was    much    more   ad- 
vanced. 
T.     What  factors  made  the  contact  with  the  Orient 

quite  easy? 

S.     All  the  water  routes. 
T.     Was  it  all  water? 
S.     No,  there  was  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  but  it  was 

cheaper  by  water. 
T.     What  other  geographical  factors  made  water  more 

desirable? 
S.     The  winds  and  monsoons  that  were  encountered  on 

the  land  routes. 

The  recitation  progressed  in  the  above  manner  during 
the  whole  hour. 

The  elementary  character  of  the  subject  matter,  the 
formality  and  mere  fact-vending  character  of  the  course, 
the  poor  grasp  that  the  students  had  on  the  subject  be- 
tokened two  things :  first,  the  students  had  in  previous 
courses  and  teaching  experience  either  never  learned  or 
had  completely  forgotten  these  things  both  as  students 
and  as  teachers;  second,  even  in  the  present  course,  the 
simple  subject  matter  had  not  been  mastered. 

The  last  fault  must  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  univer- 
sity teacher,  and  a  five  minutes'  visit  to  the  class  would 
have  revealed  the  reason.  The  trouble  was  threefold : 
first,  the  man  had  not  mastered  the  technique  of  teaching . 
second,  he  had  a  very  poor  grasp  on  his  subject  matter; 
the  third,  his  personality  was  weak,  colorless  and  inef- 
fective. He  had  only  twelve  persons  in  the  class,  each 
one  of  whom  should  have  been  able  to  give  the  gist  of 
the  whole  hour's  recitation  in  eight  or  ten  minutes.  In- 
stead, an  hour  was  needed  to  extract  it  piecemeal  from  the 
students. 

Five  out  of  the  twenty-two  teacher  trainers  made  ab- 
solutely no  attempt  in  the  sessions  visited  to  capitalize 


74  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

the  students'  experiences,  three  others  made  but  very 
little,  and  only  four  made  the  most  of  this  potential  bene- 
fit. 


Teacher  Personality  No.  1 — Type  9 

An  example  of  this  fault  was  the  class  in  "Modern 
English  Grammar"  for  teachers  and  prospective  teach- 
ers, described  on  page  11.  The  class  was  visited  on 
the  first  day  of  the  summer  session  and  was  again  visited 
the  day  before  the  final  examination.  The  teacher  was 
still  talking  in  his  halting  fashion,  still  stumbling  over  his 
"uhs",  and  laughing  at  the  vision  of  approaching  jokes 
which  never  materialized.  He  was  now  talking  to  a  class 
whose  thoughts  had  been  beaten  as  flat  and  hard  by  six 
weeks  of  crushing  tedium  as  a  macadam  road  packed  by 
a  steam  roller. 

"Punctuation  is  taught  too  mechanically,  it  should  be 
taught  from  the  analysis  of  sentences,"  the  teacher  com- 
menced. "Turn  to  page  31,  to  the  classification  of 
sentences.  The  usual  definition  of  a  simple  sentence  is 
that  it  represents  a  single  thought.  But  the  word 
'thought'  is  definite.  A  simple  thought  does  not  need  to 
be  expressed  in  a  simple  sentence  without  modifiers.  A 
simple  thought  needs  one  subject  and  one  predicate  and 
may  contain  a  number  of  modifiers." 

As  he  proceeded  he  would  read  certain  illustrative  sen- 
tences which  the  author  had  given  and  criticize  these. 
For  example,  the  text  contained  this  sentence :  The  letter 
of  introduction  containing  no  matter  of  business  was 
speedily  run  through. 

"The  author  wants  you  to  say  that  the  phrase  'con- 
taining no  matter  of  business'  is  an  adverbial  phrase, 
because  it  gives  the  reason  why  the  letter  was  speedily 
run  through.  But  we  must  be  careful  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  grammatical  relation  and  call  it  an  adjective 
phrase,"  was  the  teacher's  comment. 

He  rambled  alon^  in  this  manner  for  some  time.  Fi- 
nally a  vague  feeling  of  the  inadvisability  of  further 


PERSONALITY  AND  TEACHER  TRAINING  75 

diffuseness  must  have  arisen  in  his  consciousness  for  he 
said  that  there  are  some  things  in  grammar  we  can  take 
for  granted.  He  cited  a  young  lawyer  in  a  case  before 
the  State  Supreme  Court,  who  persisted  in  going  into 
the  most  exhaustive  details  upon  every  conceivable  point 
of  law  when  presenting  his  case.  The  judge,  all  out  of 
patience,  said  finally :  "There  are  a  few  things  in  law  that 
you  may  take  for  granted  the  Supreme  Court  knows." 

The  teacher  seemed  utterly  unconscious  of  the  beau- 
tiful irony  of  his  story.  His  whole  six  weeks'  course 
like  the  young  lawyer's  presentation  had  been  largely 
a  tedious  exposition  of  the  obvious. 

For  fifty  minutes  the  teacher  continued  his  tortoise- 
like  progress,  carefully  examining  every  inch  of  his  way. 
During  the  time  no  student  said  a  single  word.  Not  once 
did  the  teacher  address  a  question  to  these  teacher-stu- 
dents. They  maintained  the  impassiveness  of  bronze 
statues.  Here  were  thirty  experienced  teachers,  who  had 
probably  taught  grammar  for  years,  treated  like  so  many 
empty  vessels  to  be  filled  up  by  a  stream  of  words.  It 
would  not  have  been  so  bad  if  the  talk  had  been  interest- 
ing, but  it  was  intolerably  dry,  diffuse  and  trite.  It 
would  require  the  genius  of  a  Burbank  to  produce  ideas 
of  any  kind  in  this  intellectual  desert. 

An  atmosphere  of  formality  and  constraint  pervaded 
ten  or  about  one-half  of  the  twenty-two  teacher  training 
classes.  Teacher  and  class  seemed  utter  strangers  to 
each  other  and  each  appeared  suspicious  of  the  other. 
Here  was  lacking  that  spirit  of  give  and  take  which 
characterized  the  classes  of  skillful  teachers.  The  teach- 
er did  all  the  talking,  and  students  remained  silent  and 
stolid,  like  a  group  of  brow-beaten  prisoners. 

Teacher  Personality  No.  42 — Type  6 

A  particularly  flagrant  example  of  this  fault  was  in  a 
large  class  of  seventy  students  in  the  "Teaching  of  His- 


76  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

tory".  When  the  visitor  entered  the  room,  the  teacher 
was  writing  the  outline  of  his  lecture  on  the  blackboard. 
This  occupied  a  few  minutes  after  the  gong  sounded. 
The  teacher  was  a  man  somewhat  past  middle  age,  with 
gray  hair  and  moustache.  He  was  tall  and  squarely  set, 
and  wore  a  gray  suit. 

"It  would  not  be  much  amiss  to  wish  you  the  top  of 
the  morning,"  he  remarked  in  a  constrained,  formal  tone 
of  voice.  One  noticed  immediately  a  stiflfness  and  cold- 
ness of  manner,  of  diction  and  voice.  His  movements 
were  angular  and  mechanical.  His  greeting  did  not  a- 
rouse  much  interest.  He  turned  and  pointed  to  the 
blackboard  on  which  he  had  written  his  outline,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  lecture  about  reasons  for  teaching  history,  con- 
sidering in  turn  the  following  topics: 

1 — The  recentness  of  teaching  history. 

2 — Distinction  between  reading  and  study  of  history. 

3 — Informational  values. 

4 — Intellectual  values. 

5 — Ethical  values. 

6 — Training  of  powers  of  expression. 

The  lecture  lasted  forty-two  minutes.  At  the  end  of 
this  time,  the  teacher  remarked  that  the  class  was  open 
for  discussion  on  the  part  of  the  students.  After  much 
prodding,  two  students  ventured  a  few  comments,  and 
the  teacher  had  to  fill  in  the  other  six  minutes  with  his 
own  remarks. 

During  the  whole  hour,  the  class  had  maintained  the 
attitude  of  a  man  who  resigns  himself  to  listen  to  un- 
welcome advice  from  a  dictating  superior,  but  takes  his 
revenge  in  assuming  an  expression  of  deliberate  and 
pointed  indifference.  The  atmosphere  was  one  of  frigid 
hostility.  And  the  reason  for  it  all  was  the  formality  and 
stiffness  of  the  teacher's  personality.  The  "front"  of 
his  personality  was  an  impenetrable,  forbidding  wall 
through  which  nothing  entered  from  nor  emerged  to  the 
outside  world.  An  assemblage  of  mummies  would  have 
served  the  purpose  equally  as  well  as  these  students. 


PERSONALITY  AND  TEACHER  TRAINING  77 

Personality  concerns  colleges  only  so  far  as  it  produces 
results.  There  are  personalities  that  seem  to  violate  prac- 
tically every  standard  but  nevertheless  produce  excellent 
results.  At  the  end  of  a  summer  session,  however,  re- 
sults should  be  apparent.  In  class  after  class  there  was 
tangible  evidence  that  students  had  not  benefitted  in 
proportion  either  to  the  university's  obligation  to  help 
them  or  to  their  own  capacity.  Deficient  teacher  person- 
ality multiplied  by  deficient  teaching  technique  was  the 
chief  explanation. 

Teaching  Personality  No  44 — Type  7 

It  was  a  course  in  "Public  Speaking",  which  was  in- 
tended to  give  the  students  training  in  speaking  grace- 
fully and  convincingly  before  large  audiences.  The  class 
consisted  of  twenty-one  students,  ten  of  them  women. 
This  class  was  visited  the  fifth  week  of  the  summer  ses- 
sion, so  that  if  any  definite  results  were  to'  be  forthcoming, 
they  should  have  been  apparent  at  the  time. 

The  teacher  was  a  young,  dark  haired  man  who  car- 
ried himself  with  a  military  stiffness.  His  gestures  were 
jerky  and  mechanical.  He  spoke  distinctly  but  with  the 
monotonous  intonation  of  a  deaf  man  who  has  been 
taught  to  speak  by  the  lip  reading  method. 

The  teacher  spent  the  first  twelve  minutes  of  the  hour 
in  directing  the  class  haw  to  make  an  outline  of  a  little 
speech  which  they  were  to  write,  a  proceeding  which 
should  have  been  unnecessary  at  this  stage  of  the  course. 
The  remainder  of  the  hour  was  devoted  to  the  recita- 
tion of  short  selections  by  members  of  the  class.  Of 
the  fourteen  students  who  were  called  upon,  no  one  spoke 
with  any  degree  of  force  or  animation,  or  possessed  any 
ease  of  manner. 

One  young  lady  had  not  quite  mastered  even  the 
words,  much  less  the  art  of  delivering  her  little  speech. 
She  stumbled  along  painfully  and  stopped  four  or  five 
times  during  her  three  minute  speech.  One  large,  fat 
fellow  stood  up  as  stark  and  stiff  as  a  corpse  and  recited 


78  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

his  piece  in  a  thin,  bland  voice,  which  might  have  been 
an  asset  to  a  young  lady,  but  which  was  ludicrous  emerg- 
ing from  him.  One  girl  gave  a  selection  containing  a 
number  of  Spanish  names  over  which  she  rattled  with  a 
superb  unconcern  for  accuracy  and  intoned  her  phrases 
as  though  she  were  reciting  a  lullaby.  Another  co-ed 
dashed  breathlessly  through  her  sketch  as  though  it 
were  a  hundred-yard-dash.  The  women  were  the  most 
inept  in  their  efforts.  The  last  young  lady  tripped  gaily 
through  great  rhetorical  phrases  as  though  she  were 
gossiping  about  a  dance  at  an  afternoon  tea.  The  last 
man  to  speak,  however,  despite  the  fact  that  he  forgot 
and  repeated,  was  really  vigorous  and  convincing. 

Some  of  the  selections  were  patriotic  and  contained 
bronze-throated  phrases  that  should  have  stirred  the 
pulse  to  quickened  action.  Patrick  Henry's  clarion  calls 
— "Shall  Freedom  be  purchased  by  chains?"  and  "Give 
me  liberty  or  give  me  death !"  were  reduced  to  trivial- 
ities. Apparently  these  phrases  had  not  struck  a  single 
responding  chord  in  the  hearts  of  the  students,  had  not 
kindled  a  spark  of  the  emotion  which  had  given  the 
words  birth.  One  could  have  excused  extravagance,  but 
this  apathy  was  unendurable. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  recitation,  the  instructor  asked 
how  many  wanted  to  speak  before  a  large  audience  the 
next  week  which  was  to  include  all  classes  taking 
"Public  Speaking."  Only  five  students  evinced  enough 
interest  to  ask  about  it  in  greater  detail  and  of  these  two 
half-heartedly  expressed  an  intention  of  attempting  it. 
This  incident  exemplified  the  listlessness  of  the  teacher, 
the  apathy  of  the  students  and  the  futility  of  the  whole 
course. 


The  fact  that  the  faults  listed  in  this  chapter  were 
noted  in  many  of  the  other  fifty  teachers  considered  in 
this  study  does  not  mitigate  the  seriousness  of  exposing 
teachers  to  such  deficient  teaching  and  such  inadequate 
personalities. 

What  can  be  the  final  result  of  such  a  condition  of 


PERSONALITY  AND  TEACHER  TRAINING  79 

affairs  upon  the  teaching  ideals  and  habits  of  those 
teachers  who  sit  in  such  classes  day  by  day?  The  an- 
swer is  obvious.  All  these  teachers  are  subject  to  the 
law  that  a  teacher  teaches  as  she  is  taught.  Mastery  of 
subject  matter  does  not  dismiss  objectionable  models. 
The  teacher  imitates  the  tones,  the  gestures,  the  attitude 
of  mind,  and  the  methods  of  her  own  teacher.  What  more 
natural  than  that  to  a  considerable  extent  teachers  in 
training  should  consciously  as  well  as  unconciously  imi- 
tate the  personalities  they  encounter  and  endure  in  col- 
leges of  education? 

Some  of  the  teachers  of  splendid  personality  and  mark- 
ed ability,  just  fell  short  of  excellence  by  their  failure  to 
enlist  the  cooperation  of  their  classes  through  student 
self-activity,  without  which  class  attendance  is  almost 
productless.  A  little  self  analysis  and  self  criticism  after 
the  fault  has  been  pointed  out  to  these  men  would  easily 
remedy  this  fault. 

The  ill  effects  of  bad  models,  of  vicious  examples  of 
teaching  in  colleges  of  education  are  not  confined  merely 
to  secondary  schools,  but  are  visible  within  the  confines 
of  the  universities  themselves.  In  very  few  cases  are 
there  any  provisions  made  for  the  pedagogical  training 
of  young  men  who  are  preparing  to  teach  in  colleges. 
Many  normal  schools  produce  teachers  for  elementary 
schools  who  really  can  teach.  The  college  and  univer- 
sities can  do  the  same  if  they  will  train  college  teachers 
in  the  same  thorough-going  manner.  When  university 
authorities  will  permit  only  real  teachers  of  strong  per- 
sonality to  train  other  teachers,  then  can  grade  and  sec- 
ondary teachers  come  to  the  university  as  to  a  truly  in- 
spiring, a  quickening  and  rejuvenating  Mecca. 


80 


PERSONALITYCULTURB 


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CHAPTER    VI 
TEACHER  PERSONALITY  CLASSIFIED 

Classification  of  the  personality  of  elementary  and  high 
school  teachers  has  been  projected  as  an  indispensable 
science  and  art  by  several  university  teachers.  Several 
score  cards  have  been  devised,  taught  and  marketed  as 
aids  to  school  boards  and  superintendents  in  selecting, 
training  and  promoting  classroom  teachers.  Moreover 
superintendents,  as  in  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  and  Evans- 
ville,  Ind.,  Republic  and  Bay  City,  Mich.,  have  with  the 
aid  of  teachers  themselves  worked  out  classifications, 
elaborate  and  simple.  The  most  comprehensive  scheme 
yet  developed  was  built  up  cooperatively  by  teachers, 
principals  and  superintendent  in  Evanston,  111. — and 
later  abandoned  for  non-educational  reasons !  The  ac- 
companying personality  chart  has  already  been  widely 
used  for  and  by  teachers  in  public  schools. 

Higher  education,  however,  including  normal  schools, 
has  been  slow  to  admit  that  what's  sauce  for  the  goose 
is  sauce  for  the  gander.  Perhaps  university  faculties 
have  not  yet  found  time  to  try  their  own  medicine.  Per- 
haps they  have  been  too  busy  diagnosing  the  personality 
ills  of  lower  education  to  diagnose  their  own  personality 
needs. 

It  may  be  easier  for  college  teachers  to  develop  a 
classification  that  has  been  built  from  personality  factors 
observed  among  seventy-two  university  teachers  at  work, 
than  to  accept  one  spun  from  the  wisest  introspection. 
The  following  classifications  and  comparisons  are  sub- 
mitted for  their  possible  helpfulness  to  those  analysts  of 
higher  education  who  see  the  need  for  workable  classifi- 
cations of  professorial  personality  and  for  systematic 


82  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

personality  culture  for  and  by  college  teachers. 

Modern  educators  agree  that  the  college  teacher  should 
aim  to  produce  advantageous  modifications  of  the  intel- 
lectual, emotional  and  volitional  life  of  the  students. 
From  the  teachers'  success  in  educating  the  minds, 
hearts,  and  wills  of  their  students  we  shall  be  able  to 
gauge  the  relative  degree  of  their  teaching  power.  Any 
classification  of  teacher  personality  should  consider  sep- 
arately the  intellectual,  volitional  and  emotional  factors. 

The  ability  to  produce  what  Cardinal  Newman  terms 
an  "enlargement  of  the  mind  or  illumination,"  what  we 
shall  term  candle  power  of  intellectual  illumination,  is, 
at  present,  what  most  colleges  expect  first  and  foremost 
of  all  teachers.  But  we  have  outrun  Cardinal  Newman's 
contention  that  "the  business  of  a  university  is  to  employ 
itself  in  the  education  of  the  intellect."  Modern  educa- 
tors consider  this  too  narrow  an  idea  of  the  university's 
function.  Even  if  we  agreed  unreservedly  to  Newman's 
statement,  we  would  still  contend  that  the  best  way  to 
educate  the  intellect  is  not  to  attempt  to  train  the  intel- 
lect alone.  For  the  human  mind  is  a  complex  living 
whole  from  which  no  one  theoretically  defined  faculty  or 
activity  can  be  abstracted  or  segregated  for  any  isolated 
treatment.  Sensations,  feelings,  emotions,  concepts, 
mental  imagery,  desires,  motor  impulses  and  acts  of 
the  will  are  all  inextricably  inter-related  components  of 
any  conscious  state.  If  one  faculty  is  influenced  so  are 
other  closely  related  faculties  influenced. 

"But  man  is  not  all  intellect,"  as  John  Tyndall  writes 
from  his  personal  experience.  "If  he  were  so,  science 
would,  I  believe,  be  his  proper  nutriment.  But  he  feels 
as  well  as  he  thinks;  he  is  receptive  of  the  sublime  and 
the  beautiful  as  well  as  the  true.  Indeed,  I  believe  that 
even  the  intellectual  action  of  complete  man,  is,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  sustained  by  an  under-current 
of  the  emotions.  It  is  vain,  I  think,  to  attempt  to  separ- 
ate moral  and  emotional  nature  from  intellectual  nature. 
Let  a  man  but  observe  himself,  and  he  will,  if  I  mistake 
not,  find  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  moral  or  immoral 
considerations,  as  the  case  may  be,  are  the  motive  force 


TEACHER  PERSONALITY  CLASSIFIED  83 

which  pushes  his  intellect  into  action.  The  reading  of 
the  works  of  two  men,  neither  of  them  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  modern  science,  neither  of  them,  indeed,  friend- 
ly to  that  spirit  has  placed  me  here  today.  These  men 
are  the  English  Carlyle  and  the  American  Emerson.  I 
must  ever  remember  with  gratitude  that  through  three 
long,  cold  German  winters  Carlyle  placed  me  in  my  tub, 
even  when  ice  was  on  its  surface,  at  five  o'clock  every 
morning;  not  slavishly,  but  cheerfully,  meeting  each  day's 
studies  with  a  resolute  will,  determined  whether  victor 
or  vanquished  not  to  shrink  from  difficulty." 

The  fullest  development  of  the  intellect  depends  upon 
enlisting  the  powerful  support  of  the  emotions  and  the 
will,  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  emotional  and 
volitional  powers  are  more  than  a  rneans  contributing  to 
this  end.  They  are  also  ends  in  themselves.  Man  is  a 
feeling  and  acting  being,  and  not  merely  a  thinking  ma- 
chine. Intellection  or  contemplation  is  not  the  sole  end 
of  life;  it  is  a  means  as  well  as  an  end.  Intellect  gives 
direction,  volition  furnishes  the  motive  powers,  and  the 
emotions  give  tone  and  value  to  the  whole  process. 
Without  the  feelings  and  emotions,  human  beings  would 
be  machines,  propelled  by  the  will  and  directed  by  the 
intellect,  and  would  derive  no  satisfaction  or  flavor 
from  life.  To  insure  a  complete  and  satisfying  life, 
there  must  be  a  harmonious  development  of  intellect, 
emotions  and  will.  .College  teaching  and  training  aim  to 
facilitate  this  threefold  development  of  "college  bred  men 
and  women." 

In  order  to  classify  the  teacher  personality  of  the  var- 
ious instructors,  it  was  thought  best  to  find  some  living 
standard  and  then  place  each  teacher  in  comparison  with 
this  living  standard.  All  ratings  were  on  a  scale  of  one 
hundred  percent,  the  standard  for  a  scale  that  would  not 
be  used  if  we  were  trying  to  interest  individual  instructors 
in  next  steps  in  personality  culture,  but  which  serves  our 
present  purpose  of  illustration  and  suggestion.  The  stan- 
dard for  comparison  was  some  one  or  four  of  the  seventy- 
two  instructors  who  possessed  in  the  highest  degree  the 
qualities  for  producing  desired  changes  in  the  intellec- 


84  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

tual,  emotional  and  volitional  life  of  students.  Such  a 
man,  or  such  men, — and  there  were  four  of  them — were 
said  to  be  one  hundred  per  cent  in  grade.  The  three  pow- 
ers were  nicknamed  candle  power  (C.P.),  kilowatts  (K. 
W.)  and  British  thermal  units  (B.  T.  U.). 

No  instrument  or  scheme  has  ever  been  invented  to 
measure  a  teacher's  power  of  intellectual  illumination. 
The  solution  of  the  problem  was  to  take  some  man  who 
possessed  this  power  of  illumination  in  the  highest  de- 
gree as  the  standard  and  compare  all  others  with  him. 
Such  a  man  was  said  to  possess  100  candle  power,  (C.P.). 
(It  is  not,  of  course,  contended  that  one  candle  power 
represented  any  definite  invariable  unit.)  The  degree 
of  intellectual  illumination  of  each  other  teacher  was  es- 
timated relative  to  the  highest  standard  observed. 

In  forming  an  estimate  of  a  teacher's  powers  of  intel- 
lectual illumination,  the  following  tangible  factors  were 
considered:  the  proportion  of  matter  occurring  in  the 
lesson  which  was  left  obscure  or  doubtful ;  the  absence 
of  material  that  would  have  increased  clarity;  the  a- 
mount  of  time  consumed  in  clearing  up  a  topic ;  the 
proportion  of  diffuseness;  the  kind  and  quality  of  the 
illustrations,  figures  of  speech,  and  style  and  diction ;  the 
presence  of  irrelevant  matter;  the  use  of  illustrative 
devices,  slides,  diagrams,  etc. ;  the  organization  of  the 
lecture  or  recitation ;  and  the  value  of  the  subject  mat- 
ter. Then,  in  addition  to  this  the  various  intellectual 
qualities  of  personality,  profundity,  vision  associative- 
ness,  alertness,  wit,  originality,  etc.,  were  considered. 

The  same  difficulty,  of  course,  cropped  out  in  the  es- 
tablishing of  some  standard  for  emotional  heat.  The 
same  solution  offered  itself.  The  highest  degree  of  pow- 
er for  quickening  emotions  evinced  by  one  of  the  seventy- 
two  teachers  was  taken  as  the  standard.  The  man  pos- 
sessing this  was  said  to  have  100  British  thermal  units 
(B.  T.  U.'s)  of  emotional  heat.  Again,  it  was  a  question 
of  relativity,  of  comparison  of  the  other  teachers  with 
this  man,  and  determining  the  ratio  on  the  scale  of  100. 

Determining  the  presence  of  emotion  and  the  degree 
of  its  intensity  might  at  first  thought  appear  a  hopeless 


TEACHER  PERSONALITY  CLASSIFIED  85 

task.  But  it  is  relatively  simple.  The  fixed  gaze  and 
tense  position  of  the  student  indicates  an  absorbed  in- 
terest, while  luminous  eyes,  smiles,  the  hush  of  suspense, 
or  th',  ripplings  of  laughter  betray  the  presence  and 
flux  of  emotions.  The  tangible  results  of  emotional  pow- 
er will  usually  be  discernible  within  the  four  walls  of 
the  class  room.  The  spark  of  emotional  life  is  seldom 
placed  unnoticed  in  the  breasts  of  the  students,  to  flare 
up  at  some  later  time.  The  teacher  who  can  not  quicken 
the  emotions  of  his  students  when  standing  before  them 
with  the  magnet  of  his  personality  exerting  its  power  at 
close  range,  can  not  safely  count  upon  moving  them 
outside  the  classroom  beyond  the  spell  of  the  magnetic 
field. 

The  great,  unfailing  source  of  emotional  power  is  en- 
thusiasm. Enthusiasm  is  the  welding,  fusing  power  that 
molds  human  nature  as  a  trip  hammer  fashions  steel. 
A  fine,  deep,  driving  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  a  teacher 
is  an  invaluable  and  powerful  asset. 

One  aspect,  of  the  emotional  nature  which  the  ablest 
teachers  emphasized  was  the  refining  and  sharpening  of 
the  sensibilities,  the  developing  of  a  fine  sense  of  the  value 
of  things ;  of  words,  of  ideas,  of  the  fine  arts,  of  nature ;  of 
conversation  and  of  the  rarer  aspects  of  human  nature 
and  human  relationships. 

Then  the  third  power  that  the  ablest  teachers  possessed 
and  exercised  is  the  power  of  arousing  the  students  to 
independent  effort  and  self  activity.  The  term  kilowatt 
(K.  W.)  of  volitional  energy  has  been  used  to  denote 
this  power  and  the  four  teachers  evincing  this  power  in 
the  highest  degree  were  said  to  possess  100  K.  W.  of 
volitional  energy.  There  is  possibly  a  discrepancy  be- 
tween the  magnitude  of  this  and  the  other  units,  but  this 
discrepancy  may  serve  to  accentuate  the  great  importance 
of  this  essential  factor  in  the  work  of  a  teacher.  The 
dilettante,  the  procrastinator,  and  the  ne'er-do-well  are 
those  who  suffer  from  an  atrophy  of  the  will.  To  ener- 
gize the  will,  to  swing  the  whole  human  planet  into 
sweeping  momentum  is  the  supreme  task  of  the  teacher. 

The  development  of  the  students'  volitional  power  by 


86  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

the  teachers  visited  was  often  ignored.  For  example, 
assignments  of  lessons  were  often  hasty  and  faulty; 
many  had  no  definite  standards  of  acquisition;  devices 
for  checking  up  the  student's  progress  were  usually 
inadequate.  In  many  cases  this  laxity  and  these  slovenly 
methods  resulted  directly  from  weaknesses  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  teachers,  such  as  indolence  or  procrastination. 
Dignity,  poise,  resoluteness,  force,  independence,  sin- 
cerity, these  vigorous,  dynamic  qualities  that  are  marks 
of  rugged  moral  health,  were  too  often  missing  in  the 
characters  of  the  teachers. 

The  educational  world  has  been  convinced  of  the  folly 
of  upholding  interest  as  the  sole  stimulus  for  the  ac- 
quisition of  knowledge  and  the  development  of  the  pupil, 
and  is  demanding  the  antidote  of  discipline.  The  pupils 
must  be  taught  to  exert  their  own  intellectual  muscles, 
and  should  acquire  a  zeal  for  the  conquest  of  intellectual 
worlds.  Despite  this  crying  demand  for  a  regime  of  dis- 
cipline, tempered  by  an  appreciation  of  the  laws  of  in- 
terest, educational  leaders  are  finding  in  schools  of  all 
kinds,  mental  and  moral  flabbiness  on  the  part  of  teach- 
ers and  students  alike. 

As  a  kind  of  regulator  a  balancing  device  for  check- 
ing undue  exaggeration  of  one  of  the  above  three  factors 
and  for  indicating  the  presence  of  extraneous,  ungov- 
ernable conditions  was  added  to  the  three  above  men- 
tioned. This  regulator  was  class  interest  which  was  term- 
ed class  temperature  (C.  T.).  The  highest  degree  of  class 
interest  observed  was  taken  as  the  standard,  and  the 
other  classes  graded  on  a  scale  of  100  per  cent.  Condi- 
tions over  which  the  teachers  had  no  control,  such  as 
the  nature  of  the  subject  matter,  the  novelty  and  modern- 
ity of  a  subject  like  sociology;  the  inherent  dryness  of  a 
course  like  grammar,  the  rigorous  demands  of  a  course 
like  mathematics ;  the  preparation  and  intelligence  of  the 
students  and  certain  erratic,  unusual  qualities  of  person- 
ality, were  often  powerful  determinants  of  class  interest. 
These  erratic  conditions  with  their  extreme  complexity 
and  disconcerting  capacity  for  producing  irregularity  had 
to  be  considered,  and  yet,  however  intractable  these  fac- 


TEACHER  PERSONALITY  CLASSIFIED 


87 


tors  proved  themselves,  the  attempt  was  made  to  give 
them  due  recognition  and  weight. 

The  value  of  the  proposed  classification  depends  in  no 
sense  upon  its  fairness  to  the  seventy-two  university  in- 
structors observed.  Concede  for  sake  of  shifting  the 
light  from  the  writer  to  the  reader  that  not  one  of  the 
instructors  was  half  appreciated.  The  question  is, 
would  it  help  students  and  faculties  alike  if  some  such 
classification  were  to  be  generally  employed  in  selecting, 
promoting  and  developing  higher  education's  teachers? 

Again,  concede  that  too  many  or  too  few  qualities  are 
here  discussed,  and  with  wrong  emphasis.  The  question 
is,  should  higher  education  engage  itself  in  seeking  and 
using  the  most  helpful  classifications? 


For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


88  .        PERSONALITYCULTURE 


For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


At  present  universities  and  colleges  frankly  confine 
their  official  efforts  almost  wholly  to  training  the  intel- 
lect. A  careful  analysis  and  a  tentative  evaluation  of  the 
intellectual  qualities  of  the  seventy-two  teachers  may 
yield  interesting  results.  If  the  teachers  themselves  do 
not  possess  power  of  intellectual  illumination  and  cannot 
stimulate  or  develop  intellectual  power  in  their  students 
then  there  is  small  excuse  for  their  presence  in  the  class 
rooms.  This  chapter  will  consider  their  candle  power  of 
intellectual  illumination. 

The  intellectual  qualities  have  been  divided  into  four 
groups : 

1 — Qualities  describing,  as  one  might  say,  the  capacity 
of  the  intellect  and  its  acquisitive  powers. 

2 — Qualities  having  to  do  with  the  organization  of 
ideas  and  knowledge. 

3 — Qualities  concerning  the  dynamic  and  inspiration- 
al activities  of  the  intellect. 

4 — Qualities  which  represent  the  intellect's  embel- 
lishments. 

I.       Capacity  and  Acquisition 

In  the  first  group  have  been  included  the  qualities  of 
scholarship,  erudition,  generalization,  grasp  of  facts,  pro- 
fundity, comprehensiveness,  retentivity,  insight,  associa- 
tiveness,  analytic  power,  open-mindedness  and  tentacu- 
lar power. 

These  represent  the  qualities  which  make  possible  the 
attainments  and  denote  the  content  of  the  intellect. 


90  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

The  desirability  of  the  teacher  possessing  the  above 
qualities  is  self  evident.  The  tables  at  the  end  of  this  and 
succeeding  sections  will  show  roughly  in  what  degree 
these  qualities  or  their  opposites  were  discovered  or 
found  lacking.  It  is  the  ever-present  duty  of  the  teacher 
to  attempt  to  develop  all  these  desirable  qualities  not 
only  in  his  own  personality  but  also  in  that  of  his  stu- 
dents to  the  maximum  of  the  latter's  capacity  to  grow 
while  in  college. 

Insight  into  human  character  is,  of  course,  an  essential 
quality  of  any  personality  which  purports  to  influence 
others.  It  is  especially  valuable  for  the  teacher,  for  he 
will  teach,  modify  and  improve  only  what  he  understands. 
Teachers  should  have  the  power  to  enter  imaginatively 
into  the  lives,  the  ambitions,  interests  and  problems  of 
their  students.  They  should  mix  with  the  students, 
study  their  life  and  personality  and  capitalize  this  infor- 
mation in  their  work. 

Associativeness  is  a  great  asset  to  any  mind.  A 
teacher  with  great  powers  of  association  can  see  the 
unusual  resemblances  or  incongruities  of  things  and  can 
combine  apparently  unrelated  impressions. 

Power  to  analyze  is  absolutely  essential  to  all  teachers 
because  they  must  break  up  bodies  of  knowledge  into 
their  smaller  components,  so  that  the  less  mature  minds 
of  their  students  will  be  able  to  digest  and  absorb  it  bit 
by  bit.  Lack  of  adequate  analytical  power  is  very  fre- 
quently the  cause  of  a  teacher's  failure. 

Open-mindedness,  a  willingness  to  see  the  other  per- 
son's point  of  view,  will  work  wonders  in  the  matter  of 
enlisting  student  sympathy  and  co-operation.  Further- 
more, it  is  a  sign  of  educability  and  capacity  for  future 
growth.  Great  minds  are  always  open-minded,  eager 
to  receive  new  impressions. 

The  following  tables  represent  the  summary  of  a  de- 
tailed analysis  of  the  degrees  in  which  the  various  in- 
tellectual qualities  appear  in  the  personalities  of  the  sev- 
enty-two university  teachers  studied.  In  Table  No.  1, 
the  numeral  value  of  "Scholarship"  represents  the  total 
of  the  values  assigned  to  each  of  the  seventy-two  teachers 


CANDLE  POWER  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY 


91 


for  that  particular  quality.  Five  degrees  of  each  quality 
were  distinguished,  "none"  given  a  value  of  0,  "slight" 
given  value  1,  "medium"  2,  "great"  3,  and  "extraordin- 
ary" 4.  Similarly  negative  qualities  were  given  values. 
Thus  for  seventy-two  instructors  credits  for  scholar- 
ship total  137.  The  maximum  score  obtainable  for  the 
whole  group  was  72  x  4  or  288.  The  highest  score  in 
this  group  of  qualities  is  199  for  grasp  of  facts,  which  is 
70%  of  the  obtainable  score.  The  group  of  seventy-two 
instructors  might  have  totaled  288  in  each  of  twelve 
traits  or  3456;  they  did  total  1376  positive  scores  or  less 
than  40%.  Were  the  negative  total  of  337  subtracted 
the  net  score  would  be  about  30%. 


I. 


Table  No.   1 

INTELLECTUAL  QUALITIES 
CAPACITY  AND  ACQUISITION 


Possible  total,  each  point,  288 

Possible  total,  0 

No, 

Desirables        Value  No 

Undesirables      Value 

1 

Scholarship 

137     1 

Abstractness 

58 

2 

Erudition 

28    2 

Superfkialty 

18 

3 

Generalization 

83    3 

Narrow-mindedness 

76 

4 

Grasp  of  facts 

199    4 

Forgetfulness 

66 

5 

Profundity 

83    5 

Lack  of  insight 

6 

iComprehensiveness 

98 

obtuseness 

119 

7 

Retentivity-recall 

161 

8 

Insight 

109 

9 

Associativeness 

119 

10 

Analytical  power 

133 

11 

Open-mindedness 

124 

12 

Tentacular  power 

138 

Total 

1412 

Total 

337 

Possible  total, 

all  points                 3456 

Net  Total 

1075 

92  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

These  group  scores  are  ventured  for  their  suggestive- 
ness,  not  for  their  infallibility.  They  are  one  layman's  esti- 
mate based  upon  very  incomplete  acquaintance.  It 
would  be  gravely  unfair  to  award  salary  increases  or 
prestige  on  the  basis  of  such  analysis.  It  would  not  be 
unfair,  however,  to  start  helping  instructors  by  asking 
them  to  analyze  themselves  in  this  way,  or  to  start 
helping  college  students  by  showing  them  how  to  chal- 
lenge by  such  analysis  the  teacher  personalities  offered 
them. 


II.     Organizing  Qualities 

The  four  qualities  of  organization  that  should  be  part 
and  parcel  of  a  teacher's  mental  makeup  are  balance, 
emphasis,  logicality,  and  coherence. 

A  well-balanced  mind  is  one  in  which  knowledge  is 
viewed  in  its  proper  proportion  and  perspective.  It  re- 
cognizes justly  the  relative  value  of  things.  Certainly 
the  university  or  college  is  not  the  place  for  anarchists, 
fanatics,  faddists,  neurotics,  and  psychopathic  monoman- 
iacs. Two  of  the  teachers  appeared  seriously  erratic. 

In  the  work  of  the  ablest  teachers  observed  the  essen- 
tials of  a  subject  were  properly  emphasized  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  relief  observed.  Their  lectures  or  recitations  re- 
sembled relief  maps  with  the  tall  peaks  and  valleys  all  in- 
dicated. Important  laws,  principles  and  facts  of  a  subject 
were  stressed,  so  that  the  students  had  a  few  guide  posts 
to  point  the  way,  and  were  not  hopelessly  mired  in  a 
slough  of  details.  Balance  and  emphasis  were,  however, 
not  necessarily  noncomitant.  Now  and  then  a  well  balanc- 
ed mind  would  not  stress  things  properly  whereas  a  fan- 
atic seldom  failed  to. 

Logical  minds  saw  the  immutable  relations  of  cause 
and  effect.  The  minds  without  logicality  were  like  jelly- 
fish, without  a  backbone,  form  or  effectiveness.  Illogi- 
cality is  inexcusable  in  a  teacher. 

Coherence  exhibited  itself  by  bringing  out  clearly  the 
relation  of  one  thing  to  another,  marshalling  facts  and 


CANDLE  POWER  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY 


93 


knowledge  in  the  proper  order.  Some  logical  minds  were 
unable  to  present  things  coherently,  but  coherent  minds 
were  necessarily  logical. 

Table  No.  2 

INTELLECTUAL  QUALITIES 
II.      ORGANIZATION 


Possible  total,  each  point,  288 


Possible   total,  0 


No.        Desirables        Value    No.     Undesirables     Value 


1 

2 
3 

4 

Balance 
Emphasis 
Logicality 
Coherence-system 

146 
105 
151 

146 

1 
2 
3 
4 

Warped-unbalanced 
Monotonous 
Illogical 
Incoherent 

8 
89 
86 
54 

Total 

548 

Total 

237 

Possible  total 
every  point 

1152 

Net  total 

311 

The  majority  of  the  men  appeared  well  balanced,  were 
logical  and  coherent.  However  in  the  presentation  of 
their  subjects  they  neglected  the  principle  of  emphasis, 
a  very  important  but  easily  corrected  factor.  In  organ- 
izing qualities  the  group  totaled  548  positive  scores  out 
of  a  possibile  1152,  a  negative  score  of  237  in  four  bad 
traits,  a  net  score  of  311  where  1152  was  possible  had  all 
equalled  the  best. 

III.    Dynamic  and  Inspirational  Qualities 

Whereas  the  qualities  implying  capacity  and  ac- 
quisitive powers — excepting  scholarship  and  erudition — 
and  those  descriptive  of  the  powers  of  organization,  are 
fundamental  to  any  man  of  significance  in  any  walk  of 
life,  they  are  not  the  qualities  which  are  necessarily  dis- 
tinctive of  a  teacher.  A  teacher  covets  most  of  these 
qualities  as  assets,  but  without  the  dynamic  and  inspira- 


94  PERSON1.LITYCULTURE 

tional  qualities,  he  will  never  be  a  great  teacher.  With- 
out vision,  imagination,  clearness,  associativeness,  orig- 
inality, resourcefulness,  ingenuity,  alertness,  illustrative- 
ness,  incisiveness,  and  brilliance  he  remains  at  most  only 
a  scholar.  A  teacher  must  possess  qualities  which  pro- 
duce the  proper  reactions  on  his  students. 

Vision  is  possibly  the  greatest  single  asset  of  any 
mind.  The  teacher  with  vision  utilized  the  experiences 
and  knowledge  of  the  past  and  painted  a  glorious,  stim- 
ulating picture  of  the  future.  He  pointed  out  to  the 
students  the  value  of  what  they  had  done,  what  they 
were  doing,  and  enlarged  on  the  possibilities  of  the  fu- 
ture. And  whatever  subject  he  is  dealing  with,  such  a 
teacher  will  throw  about  it  an  irridescent  aura  which 
makes  it  interesting  and  wonderful.  Four  men  possessed 
this  in  high  degree. 

Originality  is  one  of  the  fundamental  qualities  of  gen- 
ius. Few  of  the  teachers  could  be  said  to  have  any 
great  originality. 

Resourcefulness  may  be  useful  to  a  teacher  in  answer- 
ing the  students'  questions,  ingenuity  in  formulating  new 
ways  of  presenting  things  and  driving  things  home.  Both 
are  highly  stimulating  qualities.  Several  men  appeared 
to  be  ingenious  and  resourceful. 

Alertness  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  the  ability  to 
rapidly  and  constantly  focus  his  attention  on  each  in- 
cident that  comes  up  in  class,  is  a  quality  that  keeps 
the  students  on  the  qui  vive.  Many  of  the  teachers  were 
quite  alert. 

Illustrativeness  might  be  considered  as  a  component 
of  the  quality  of  associativeness,  but  is  so  comprehen- 
sive and  so  essential  in  itself  that  it  deserves  independent 
mention.  The  ablest  teachers  had  on  the  tongue's  tip 
illustration  after  illustration  to  drive  home  a  law  or  prin- 
ciple. This  quality  was  a  great  aid  in  gaining  clearness. 
Several  others  made  good  use  of  illustrations. 


CANDLE  POWER  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY    95 

Table  No.  3 

INTELLECTUAL  QUALITIES 
III.       DYNAMIC  AND  INSPIRATIONAL 


Possible  total,  each  point,  288 

Possible  total,  0 

No.        Desirables 

Value 

No.      Undesirables     Value 

1 

Vision 

54 

1 

Short-sightedness 

75 

2 

Verve 

63 

2 

Lack  of  dash- 

3 

Imagination 

12 

inertness 

144 

4 

(Clearness 

125 

3 

Obscurity 

90 

5 

Originality 

85 

4 

Triteness 

100 

6 

Resourcefulness 

126 

5 

Dependence 

84 

7 

Ingenuity 

66 

6 

Absent-mindedness 

84 

8 

Alertness 

137 

9 

Illustrativeness 

110 

10 

Incisiveness 

134 

11 

Brilliance 

68 

Total 

980 

Total 

577 

Possible  total, 

every  point 

3168 

Net  total 

403 

The  teachers  scored  very  poorly  in  this  important 
group  of  qualities,  totaling  980  positive  scores  out  of  a 
possible  3168.  Subtracting  577  negative  scores  we  have 
a  net  score  of  403  in  3168. 

They  scored  only  fair  in  clearness,  resourcefulness, 
alertness,  illustrativeness  and  incisiveness,  poor  in  vision, 
verve,  originality,  ingenuity  and  brilliance.  One  discov- 
ered only  a  few  traces  of  the  quality  of  imagination, 
which  of  course  need  not  be  apparent  in  each  and  every 
session. 

They  also  made  a  bad  record  in  the  positive  undesir- 
able qualities  of  this  group,  particularly  lack  of  dash, 
obscurity  and  triteness.  The  very  poor  showing  made 
in  this  group  of  traits  was  a  proof  of  that  general  lack  of 
dynamic  and  inspirational  qualities  which  characterizes 
all  too  many  of  the  teachers'  work. 


96  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

IV.    Embellishing  Qualities 

Some  traits  may  be  termed  embellishments,  adorn- 
ments that  make  for  charm  and  grace  of  per- 
sonality. Such  factors  as  wit,  anecdotes  remin- 
iscences, epigrams,  paradoxes,  figures  of  speech 
and  whimsicality  constitute  the  fragrance  and  the  iri- 
descent hues  of  personality.  These  are  qualities  project- 
ed by  the  intellect,  yet  producing  distinctly  emotional 
effects.  By  inducing  the  proper  frame  of  mind  on  the 
part  of  the  students,  they  serve  to  lessen  tedium  and 
neutralize  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  daily  grind  of  school 
work. 

The  dullness  of  too  many  classes  was  deplorable.  The 
almost  general  absence  of  embellishing  and  adorning 
qualities  explains  to  a  considerable  extent  the  tedious- 
ness  and  ennui  of  the  majority  of  the  class  exercises. 
The  success  of  a  teacher's  personality  rests  as  essentially 
upon  the  presence  of  these  qualities  as  does  the  success 
of  personalities  in  any  other  walk  of  life. 

Table  No.  4 

INTELLECTUAL  QUALITIES 
IV.      EMBELLISHMENTS 


Possible  total,  each  point  288 

Possible  total  0 

No.        Desirables        Value    No.      Undesirables     Value 

1 
2 
3 
4 
6 
5 
7 

Wit 
Anecdotes 
Reminiscence 
Epigrams 
Whimsicality 
Paradoxes 
Figures  of  speech 

58     1 
29 
36 
20 
52 
12 
65 

Dullness-lack  of  wit    124 

Total 

272 

Total                             124 

Possible  total, 
every  point 

2016 

Net  total,                     148 

CHAPTER     VIII 
B.  T.  U'S  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY 

The  picture  of  college  breeding  which  colleges  and 
universities  paint  is  something  like  this:  Students  are 
taught  to  enjoy  and  appreciate  the  more  elevated  aspects 
of  poetry,  literature,  sculpture,  music,  painting,  drama, 
nature  and  conversation,  and  the  finer,  rarer  qualities  of 
personality.  They  are  trained  to  see  the  beauty  of  hum- 
ble and  common  things,  to  appreciate  the  homelier  and 
more  substantial  qualities  of  human  nature  as  well.  They 
are  taught  to  dress  well,  to  develop  agreeable  manners 
and  charm  of  personality  and  to  furnish  homes  and  of- 
fices in  good  taste.  Their  voices,  facial  expressions, 
personal  habits  are  refined,  and  their  appreciation  of 
these  in  others  developed.  Desire  and  capacity  to  enjoy 
the  refining  influences  in  life  is  one  of  the  products  of  a 
true  education.  College  men  and  women  learn  to  live 
more  fully,  more  richly,  more  deeply,  to  enjoy  life  to  the 
full  as  the  result  of  a  college  education. 

How  can  our  colleges  realize  this  ideal  unless  their 
instructors  have  developed  the  qualities  the  students 
should  have?  If  James'  theory  of  vibratory  brain  cells 
is  true,  that  the  profounder  and  more  compelling  power 
of  emotions  to  produce  vibration  induces  greater  and 
more  trenchant  thoughts,  then  professors  who  are  devoid 
of  emotion  and  enthusiasm  inflict  untold  injury  on  stu- 
dent mind. 

Emotional  qualities  are  of  three  groups : 

I.     Qualities  of  conduct  and  appearance, 
II.     Basic  emotions, 
III.     Refining  qualities. 
To  help  think  of  their  purposes   in   life,   distinct   from 


98  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

those  of  intellectual  qualities,  they  are  likened  to  British 
thermal  units.  They  are  effective  according  to  the  heat 
units  and  ash  they  bear. 

I.    Qualities  of  Conduct  and  Appearance 

Naturalness  of  manner,  neatness,  a  pleasant 
voice,  a  pleasing  facial  expression,  good  diction,  modesty, 
tact,  and  courtesy  include  the  principal  external  and 
physical  traits  by  means  of  which  students  decide  al- 
most at  first  sight,  whether  or  not  they  will  like  a 
teacher.  Many  students  have  not  been  trained  and  are 
not  sufficiently  mature  to  observe  the  more  fundamental 
and  subtle  qualities  of  human  nature,  and  judge  almost 
wholly  by  externalities,  "niceness"  of  appearance,  and  ex- 
pression and  manners.  Affectation  and  slovenliness  of 
dress,  expression  or  manner,  egotism,  tactlessness  or 
rudeness,  cannot  fail  to  alienate  the  students'  sympa- 

Table  No.  5 

EMOTIONAL  QUALITIES 
I.     CONDUCT  AND  APPEARANCE 

Possible  total,  each  point,  288 Possible  total  0 

No.        Desirables        Value     No.      Undesirables     Value 


1  Naturalness  of  manner 

129  1  Affectation 

14 

2  Neatness  and  taste 

141  2  Slovenliness 

12 

3  Pleasant  voice 

158  3  Conceit 

19 

4  Pleasant  expression 

142  4  Rudeness 

3 

5  Good  diction 

147 

6  Modesty 

139 

7  Tact 

132 

8  Courtesy 

132 

Total 

1120      Total 

48 

Possible  total, 

every  point, 

2304      Net  total 

1072 

B  T  U'S  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  99 

thies,  and  interfere  with  their  progress  and  development. 
Most  of  the  instructors  made  a  good  impression  in  an 
analysis  of  this  group  of  qualities.  A  few  of  them  were 
affected,  slovenly  and  conceited;  and  one  was  extremely 
rude  in  the  treatment  of  his  students.  Out  of  a  possible 
2304  positive  credits  they  scored  1120;  subtracting  48 
undesirables,  the  net  total  is  1072. 

II.  .Basic  and  Stimulating  Emotions 

No  one  will  deny  the  desirability  of  a  teacher  being  vir- 
ile emotionally  and  generously  equipped  with  the  great 
basic  human  emotions,  those  qualities  which  constitute 
a  sort  of  social  cement  and  serve  to  bind  us  together  into 
a  social  unity. 

Address  is  one  of  the  greatest  assets  of  any  personality. 
It  is  the  outward  manifestation  of  one's  attitude  toward 
one's  fellow  creatures,  not  always  the  true  one,  but  usual- 
ly the  one  that  is  accepted  at  first  meeting.  Most  people 
whom  one  meets  have  no  other  way  of  judging  person- 
ality than  by  the  manner  in  which  they  are  treated  on 
first  meeting.  A  person  of  good  address  possesses  a 
ready  smile,  a  kindly  smile,  a  nimble  tongue  and  mind, 
a  warm  handclasp,  an  expression  of  sympathy  and  interest 
in  everyone  he  meets.  There  is  a  suppleness,  an  ingen- 
uity, and  a  sympathetic  insight  that  establishes  an  agree- 
able and  penetrating  contact  with  whomsoever  such  a 
person  may  meet.  Such  a  person  seems  to  gauge,  to 
sympathize,  to  approve  and  be  glad  to  meet  another.  A 
winning  address  should  be  and  can  be  cultivated  by 
every  teacher.  In  fact,  so  striking  is  this  quality  when 
present  in  a  remarkable  degree,  that  students  at  first  con- 
fuse this  one  quality  with  the  whole  of  personality,  and 
often  exclaim  upon  first  meeting  a  new  instructor  "What 
a  wonderful  personality  he  has!"  often  with  a  large 
measure  of  truth,  for  it  is  the  touchstone  of  personality. 

Then  there  are  the  great  fundamental  qualities  of 
sympathy,  humor,  enthusiasm,  democracy,  responsive- 
ness, good  nature,  tolerance  and  optimism  which  every 


100  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

college  teacher  can  have  and  be  able  to  stimulate  stu- 
dents. Enthusiasm  for  the  subject,  if  not  for  the  student, 
is  essential  to  success  in  teaching.  Not  all  teachers  appre- 
ciate as  they  should  the  tremendous  importance  of  humor. 
A  genial  humor  and  a  ready  wit  will  offset  the  lack  of 
many  other  desirable  qualities  and  will  arouse  the  inter- 
est and  win  the  sympathy  of  the  students  as  few  other 
qualities. 

"How  to  infuse  interest  into  their  classwork  should 
be  ever  prominent  before  the  teachers'  eyes,"  according 
to  Julius  Sacks,  Teachers'  College,  Columbia  University. 
"It  has  always  seemed  inconceivable  why  some  of  our 
teachers  are  inclined  to  sneer  at  interest  as  a  vital  force 
in  teaching."  How  ability  to  arouse  student  interest 
manifests  itself  in  classes  visited  has  already  been  shown. 

Table  No.  6 

EMOTIONAL  QUALITIES 
II.      BASIC  EMOTIONS 

Possible  total,  each  point,  288  Possible  Total  0 

No.        Desirables        Value    No.      Undesirables     Value 


1 

Address 

142 

1 

Furtive-shrinking 

34 

2 

Sympathy 

111 

2 

Sarcasm 

3 

3 

Humor 

62 

3 

Lack  of  humor 

50 

4 

Enthusiasm 

135 

4 

Coldness 

101 

5 

Democracy 

144 

5 

Snobbish-super- 

6 

Responsiveness 

108 

ciliousness 

28 

7 

Good  nature 

138 

6 

Harshness 

2 

8 

Tolerance 

86 

7 

Domineering 

8 

9 

Optimism 

85 

8 

Tediousness-boring 

74 

10 

Eloquence 

38 

11 

Interest-gripping 

103 

Total 

1152 

Total 

300 

Possible  total, 

every  point, 

3168 

Net  total 

852 

B  T  U'S  OF  TEACHER  PERSONALITY  101 

*  *"'  *4*  *^L 

Not  one  of  these  basic  emotion-creating  qualities  can 
be  properly  dispensed  with  or  slurred  in  college  teaching. 

Where  3168  points  were  obtainable,  there  were  1152 
positive  scores;  subtracting  300  undesirables  we  have 
852  or  a  little  better  than  25  per  cent  of  the  total  which 
the  group  would  have  had  if  all  had  equalled  the  best. 
Most  of  the  men  were  fairly  good  natured,  but  few  gave 
evidence  of  active  humor.  Most  appeared  to  be  demo- 
cratic in  their  attitude.  Optimism  and  eloquence  existed 
only  in  a  small  degree  and  in  few  cases.  Among  a  con- 
siderable number,  those  of  the  higher  types  of  teachers, 
the  qualities  of  address,  sympathy,  enthusiasm,  respon- 
siveness and  interest-gripping  were  present  to  a  com- 
mendable degree.  Tolerance  could  be  gauged  fairly  only 
in  the  recitation  classes,  and  here  the  quality  appeared 
in  the  majority  of  cases. 

The  personality  deficits  were  present  in  a  rather  large 
proportion  of  cases  and  in  considerable  degree.  Many 
of  the  men  were  diffident  and  shrinking  in  their  manner, 
a  much  larger  number  were  cold,  unsympathetic  and  ted- 
ious, while  others  were  dry  and  lacked  humor.  A  num- 
ber of  examples  of  snobbishness,  intolerance  and  one  of 
sarcasm  were  observed. 

Table  No.  7 

EMOTIONAL  QUALITIES 
III.      REFINING  QUALITIES 

Possible  total,  each  point,  288 Possible  total,  0 

No.        Desirables        Value     No.     Undesirables     Value 

1  Charm                            102  1  Colorless  43 

2  Sensitivity                       82  2  Boorishness  6 

3  Aesthetic  sense              35  3  Prosaic-matter  of  fact  78 

4  Sense  of  wonder  of  life  39  4  Cynicism              .  6 

Total  258        Total  133 

Possible  total, 

every  point,  1152       Net  total  125 


102  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

Ota  possible  1152,  the  seventy-two  instructors  scored 
258  in  positive  refining  qualities.  But  they  also  scored 
133  in  negative  undesirables,  a  net  score  of  125  or  a 
little  over  10  per  cent. 

Little  criticism  would  be  made  because  of  the  lack 
of  these  qualities  if  the  antithetical  qualities  of 
aggressiveness,  decisiveness,  fearlessness  and  exacting 
standards  were  present  in  a  considerable  degree,  for  the 
two  kinds  of  qualities  are  not  often  discovered  in  the 
same  personality.  This  is  merely  a  further  example  of 
the  sins  of  omission  that  are  chargeable  to  teachers. 

Too  many  colorless  personalities,  and  prosaic,  dull 
minds,  were  noted. 


For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


Modern  education  has  been  accused  by  leading  educa- 
tors of  turning  out  graduates  with  invertebrate,  jelly- 
fish wills.  The  charges  run  like  this:  "Students  are 
cosseted  and  coddled,  are  entertained  and  amused  all 
through  their  school  life,  so  that  when  they  emerge  from 
college,  they  are  like  soft-shelled  crabs,  unfit  for  the  rude 
shocks  of  the  outside  world.  Students  have  not  develop- 
ed the  sterner  traits  of  character,  such  as  the  more  rugged 
volitional  qualities,  aggressiveness,  application,  resolute- 
ness and  decisiveness." 

Writing  in  the  Western  Teacher,  Mr.  G.  G.  Acton 
declares :  "Our  schools  are  filling  with  a  spry,  deft,  alert, 
attentive,  nonintrospective  generation  of  young  people, 
who  seem  to  be  losing  certain  qualities  of  ruggedness 
that  should  distinguish  a  people.  Our  students  are  too 
willing  to  take  a  teacher's  word  for  it.  There  seems  to 
be  too  little  of  that  fixity  of  purpose  and  independence 
of  attitude  that  leads  one  to  say  even  of  an  unschooled 
man  that  he  has  good  stuff  in  him.  As  a  body,  our 
students  ask  few  questions,  they  seldom  challenge  a 
classmate's  statements,  they  are  glad  to  be  passed  by  in 
recitations  to  avoid  interrogation.  They  like  to  bloom 
without  being  torn  to  pieces  for  analysis.  They  are  not 
fond  of  knotty  problems.  There  is  little  of  that  rejoicing 
in  strength  to  run  a  scholarly  race.  I  think  parents 
make  a  mistake  in  not  commending  teachers  more  often 
for  requiring  students  to  work  out  questions  for  them- 
selves." 

Many  believe  that  such  charges  are  true  and  apply  to 
the  majority  of  the  students  of  both  high  schools  and 


104  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

universities.  But  are  not  such  statements  an  admission 
of  defeat  and  ineffectiveness  on  the  part  of  our  educa- 
tional institutions  rather  than  evidence  of  defect  in  stu- 
dent material? 

We  have  no  right  to  reprove  students  for  being  what 
their  teachers  have  made  them  or  unnecessarily  allowed 
them  to  remain.  By  the  time  a  student  reaches  college 
or  even  high  school,  he  is  pretty  much  a  product  of  the 
school  system.  Has  the  teacher  no  responsibility  for  the 
growth  and  development  of  the  student's  intellectual, 
emotional,  and  moral  nature?  If  not,  who  then  has? 
The  school  is  expected  to  show  results  for  its  efforts. 
Our  teachers  admit  that  they  are  the  moulders  of  stu- 
dent minds  and  characters.  If  a  contractor  builds  a 
poor  building  we  blame  the  contractor  not  the  building. 
If  a  school  system  makes  a  contract  to  educate  the  child, 
and  does  not  succeed,  whom  shall  we  blame,  the  teacher 
or  the  child?  It  is  granted  that  the  work  of  the  teacher 
is  infinitely  more  complex  and  difficult  than  any  work 
of  mechanical  construction,  but  even  so,  the  burden  of 
proof  clearly  rests  on  the  teacher's  shoulders  and  not  on 
the  pupils. 

The  fault  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  heretofore 
very  few  qualities  of  action  have  been  required  of  the 
teacher  as  the  price  of  success  in  his  field.  Given  a  fair 
amount  of  persistence  and  power  of  application,  a  man 
may  be  said  to  possess  the  qualities  of  action  necessary 
to  make  him  a  "success"  in  the  scholarly  world  and  even 
in  the  classroom.  Some  of  the  men  rated  lowest  in  this 
book  enjoy  enviable  reputations  for  scholarship  and 
others  for  popularity  even  with  students.  Wherever 
there  exist  no  properly  accepted  method  and  no  admin- 
istrative machinery  for  checking  up  adequately  a  teacher's 
results  with  his  students  in  the  classroom  or  the  laboratory, 
and  wherever  reward  comes  for  almost  everything  ex- 
cept excellence  in  teaching,  teachers  will  fail  to  develop 
the  rugged  qualities  of  action,  forcefulness,  aggressive- 
ness, decisiveness,  courage  and  independence,  which  are 
absolutely  essential  for  success  in  the  world  of  affairs. 
And  yet,  even  though  it  is  difficult  to  develop  these  qual- 


KILOWATTS  OF  TEACHING  PERSONALITY  105 

ities  within  the  walls  of  a  college,  the  existence  and  the 
desirability  of  cultivating  these  sterner  traits  in  the  stu- 
dents should  be  recognized  and  given  due  emphasis. 
That  it  can  be  done  several  of  the  personality  descrip- 
tions have  shown. 


I.      Qualities    Stimulating    to    Action    and    Effort 

Too  many  teachers  were  not  sufficiently  rigid 
or  exacting  in  their  standards  of  attainments. 
They  were  too  easy-going.  Slovenly  reports  passed  mus- 
ter, mumbled  and  garbled  shreds  of  information  were 
accepted  as  recitations,  and  examinations  called  merely 

Table  No.  8 


I. 

Possible  total,  each  point,  288 Possible  total  0 

No.        Desirables        Value    No.      Undesirables     Value 


1 

2 

3 
4 

5 
6 
7 

Exacting  —  rigid 
Fearlessness  —  moral 
courage 
Aggressivness 
Independence  of 
judgment 
Decisiveness 
Encouraging 
Dynamic 

78 

10 
92 

34 
34 
80 
102 

1 

2 
3 

4 
5 

Laxity 
Subservience   (moral) 
Timidity  of  judgment 
Irresolution 
Discouraging-re- 
pressive 

52 
10 
36 
16 

47 

Total 

430 

Total 

161 

Possible  total, 
every  point, 

2016 

Net  total 

269 

for  small  samples  of  knowledge.  Yet  no  other  single 
quality  wins  the  lasting  respect  of  the  students  as  that 
of  a  teacher's  being  exacting  and  rigid  in  standards  of 


106  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

attainment.  Other  desirable  qualities  are  fearlessness, — 
that  is,  moral  courage,  — aggressiveness,  independence  of 
judgment,  and  decisiveness.  A  teacher  who  is  encourag- 
ing and  dynamic  will  be  able  to  stimulate  his  students  to 
continuous  and  independent  effort. 

Of  a  possible  2016  only  430  positive  scores  were  made, 
with  161  negative  scores,  leaving  a  net  total  of  but  269. 
Quite  striking  was  the  lack  of  definite  and  exacting 
standards  of  work.  The  teachers  were  much  too  lax  and 
easy-going  as  to  the  results  attained  by  the  students. 
There  was  a  lack  of  decisiveness  and  of  independence  of 
judgment.  Subservience  to  authority  and  timidity  of  in- 
dependent judgment  were  flagrant.  A  large  number  were 
given  rather  poor  grades  for  the  qualities  of  aggressive- 
ness, encouragement  and  dynamic  power.  The  quality 
of  fearlessness  could  not  be  judged  in  most  classroom 
observations. 


II.     Qualities  of  Conduct  and  Appearance 

^ 

The  qualities  of  dignity  and  reserve,  poise,  vi- 
tality and  forceful  speech  are  definite  and  essential  assets 
to  a  teacher.  The  insistence  upon  mere  physical  vitality 
should  not  be  carried  to  an  extreme.  It  is  usually  true 
that  a  sound  mind  resides  in  a  sound  body,  but  it  does 
not  inevitably  follow  that  a  sound  body  houses  a  fine 
teaching  personality.  A  special  study  was  made  of  the 
relation  of  physique  to  teaching  personality.  Out  of  the 
twenty-seven  of  the  best  personalities,  twenty-two  were 
men  of  good  physique,  and  five  of  poor  physique.  Out 
of  the  other  forty-five  less  adequate  personalities,  twenty- 
seven  were  of  good  physique  and  eighteen  of  poor  phy- 
sique; the  twenty-seven  of  excellent  physique  were  also 
of  decidedly  inferior  teaching  personality.  Thus  although 
a  poor  physique  may  mar  irretrievably  a  fine  personality, 
one  must  look  carefully  beyond  mere  physical  appear- 
ance to  determine  whether  a  man  has  a  good  teaching 
personality. 

With   few   exceptions   the   teachers'   personalities   ex- 


KILOWATTS  OF  TEACHING  PERSONALITY 


107 


pressed  dignity  and  reserve  and  poise ;  in  fact,  some  over- 
did it.  There  was  noticeable  a  lack  of  physical  vitality 
and  forceful  speech,  although  only  a  few  examples  of 
sickliness  and  nervousness  were  noticed.  Every  one  of 
these  qualities  can  be  cultivated. 

Table  No.  9 

VOLITIONAL  QUALITIES 
II.      CONDUCT  AND  APPEARANCE 


Possible  total,  each  point,  28 


Possible  total,  0 


No.        Desirables       Value     No.     Undesirables     Value 


1  Dignity  —  reserve 
2  Poise 

146 
157 

1  Undignified 
2  Nervous  —  erratic 

9 

14 

3  Physical  vitality  — 
energy 
4  Forcefulness  of 

109 

3  Sickly 

15 

speech 

115 

Total 

527 

Total 

38 

Possible  total, 
every   point, 

1152 

Net  total, 

489 

III.    Qualities  Ethical  in  Effect 

Sincerity  or  integrity,  industry,  fairness  and  clean- 
mindedness  are  qualities  essential  in  a  teacher  to  win  and 
hold  the  respect  of  the  students. 

Of  a  total  possible  score  of  1152  this  group  of  sev- 
enty instructors  were  marked  542  in  volitional  qualities 
ethical  in  effect.  Subtraction  of  89  points  was  necessary 
for  striking  undesirable  qualities  producing  unethical  or 
antithetical  effects,  leaving  a  net  total  of  453  or  40  per 
cent  of  the  possible  score.  Again  it  is  repeated  that 
these  numerical  expressions  of  an  observer's  impressions 
are  not  scientific  determination,  but  an  appeal  for  effort 


108  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

on  the  part  of  higher  education  to  successfully  analyze 
and  cultivate  instructor  personality. 


Table  No.  10 

VOLITIONAL  QUALITIES 
III.      QUALITIES  ETHICAL  IN  EFFECT 

Possible  total,  each  point,  28 Possible  total,  0 

No.        Desirables        Value     No.      Undesirables     Value 


1  Sincerity  —  integrity 
2  Industry 
3  Fairness 
4  Clean  mindedness 

133     1  Bluff—  pretense 
115     2  Indolence 
81     3  Unfairness 
213    4  Salacious 

28 
38 
20 
3 

Total 

542        Total 

89 

Possible  total, 
every  point, 

1152     Net  total, 

453 

All  but  one  of  the  men  seemed  clean-minded,  most  of 
the  men  appeared  sincere,  a  lesser  number  very  industri- 
ous. Some  examples  of  bluff  and  four-flushing  were 
noted,  and  some  also  of  indolence.  One  striking  example 
of  lack  of  clean-mindedness  was  observed,  later  discov- 
ered to  be  a  notorious  and  frequent  offender. 

The  benefits  of  positive  volitional  qualities  and  the  in- 
juries of  negative  volitional  qualities  multiply  inexorably 
for  "teachers  teach  as  they  are  taught." 

Deficiencies  of  personality  will  not  so  easily  survive 
after  higher  education  more  generally  substitutes  direc- 
tion in  work  that  needs  to  be  done  for  lecturing  and 
quizzing  about  book  contents. 


CHAPTER    X 
TEN  GRADES  OF  TEACHING  ABILITY 

Ten  distinct  grades  of  teachers  were  discovered  in  the 
process  of  analysis  and  classification.  These  will  be  de- 
fined and  described  in  this  chapter. 

This  classification  of  seventy-two  teachers  may  not 
serve  as  a  pattern  for  anyone  else  to  use  without  con- 
siderable alteration  and  development.  However  arbi- 
trary and  subjective  the  actual  grading  of  the  individual 
teachers  may  appear,  will  the  reader  kindly  remember 
that  the  definition  and  establishment  of  the  various  types 
did  not  start  with  judgment  in  the  author's  mind,  but 
with  qualities  of  personality  and  teaching  method  which 
were  observed  and  analyzed?  It  is  remarkable  how 
quickly  points  of  resemblance  bring  birds  of  a  feather 
into  a  "type."  A  large  number  of  salient  qualities  con- 
stitute the  common  denominator  of  each  type  despite 
the  wide-spread  impression  that  each  human  being  is 
a  unique  individuality.  Furthermore,  once  the  various 
types  have  been  defined,  arranged  in  order  of  effective- 
ness and  the  teachers  classified  accordingly,  it  is  easier 
than  one  thinks  to  arrange  teachers  within  types  ac- 
cording to  their  respective  ability,  and  to  assign  to  each 
factor  of  teaching  ability  a  percentage  range  which  will 
indicate  relative  excellence.  Of  course,  the  percentage 
grading  of  the  various  components  may  be  legitimately 
criticized  as  being  subjective  and  arbitrary,  but  this 
charge  can  be  made  of  the  grading  of  any  imponderable 
quality  that  characterizes  living  organisms,  whether  it  be 
judging  flowers,  wheat,  pigs,  dogs  or  horses.  What,  for 
example,  is  more  subjective  and  arbitrary  than  the  judg- 
ment of  a  tea  taster,  unless  it  is  a  conventional  university 


110  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

grade  of  B+  or  67? 

In  any  reasonable  classification  of  teaching  ability,  the 
person  who  does  the  grading  will  arrive  at  his  judgments 
by  observation,  not  guess  work.  In  every  instance  the  au- 
thor has  notes  to  support  the  grades  given  the  various 
teachers.  Furthermore,  anyone  else  can  easily  by  a  de- 
tailed analysis  of  components  of  teaching  ability  study  a 
number  of  teachers,  classify  them  into  groups  and  deter- 
mine their  relative  teaching  ability. 

The  point  the  author  wishes  to  emphasize  is  that  this 
classification  of  teachers  is  not  the  result  of  an  arm-chair 
study,  arrived  at  by  consulting  eminent  authorities,  but  is 
the  result  of  a  field  study  of  teachers  observed  in  the  act  of 
actually  teaching.  The  degree  of  teaching  ability  can  nev- 
er be  determined  by  looking  up  a  teacher's  previous  record 
in  college,  by  examining  his  Ph.  D.  thesis,  reading  the 
books  and  articles  he  has  written  or  sampling  his  reputa- 
tion at  the  faculty  club.  It  can  only  be  determined  by 
first-hand  observation  in  a  classroom  where  the  teacher 
is  caught  redhanded  in  the  act  of  teaching  or  by  an  ex- 
amination of  his  students. 

The  summary  on  page  111  gives  the  number  of  teachers 
in  each  of  ten  groups  and  the  limits  of  the  percentage 
gradings  of  the  various  factors  in  each  group  i.  e.  C.  P., 
B.  T.  U.,  K.  W.,  and  C.  T.  The  ten  types  are  explained 
with  references  to  earlier  personality  protraits. 

First  and  Highest  Type — 4  Teachers 

The  four  men  included  in  the  first  group  of  teachers — 
Nos.  4,  8,  24,  31 — represent  the  very  highest  type  of 
teacher  observed.  They  were  men  of  high  intellectual 
endowments  and  untiring  mental  energy.  All  were  men 
of  rugged  physique  and  commanding  bearing.  Their 
voices  were  clear  and  pleasingly  resonant.  In  them 
splendid  physical  equipment  and  mental  endowments 
were  equally  matched. 

In  them  seemed  constellated  a  galaxy  of  teaching  vir- 
tues. They  possessed  great  retentive  and  associative 


TEN  GRADES  OF  TEACHING  ABILITY 


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112  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

powers;  they  struck  one  as  being  incisive  and  penetrat- 
ing, alert  and  resourceful.  They  were  sympathetic  and 
open-minded;  their  wit  was  keen,  yet  sympathetic  and 
pleasing  and  their  humor  inexhaustible.  They  had  that 
animation,  that  infectious  enthusiasm  which  is  most  es- 
sential to  a  really  great  teacher. 

Their  character  and  personality  were  characterized 
by  a  glowing  enthusiasm  that  kindled  student  interest 
and  swung  student  energies  into  action.  The  students 
caught  the  spirit  of  their  teachers.  The  students  strain- 
ed forward  in  their  seats,  every  eye  riveted  on  the  teach- 
er. For  the  teachers  were  not  like  actors,  merely  whip- 
ping up  a  sea  of  emotions,  but  were  the  inspiring  leaders 
of  an  active  working  group.  The  students  were  intense- 
ly interested  in  their  subjects,  were  working  hard  or 
eager  to  work  hard  and  accomplish  results,  and  enjoying 
the  whole  process. 


Type  2 — 4  Teachers 

The  second  type  of  teacher  must  not  be  thought  of  as 
falling  very  much  below  those  of  the  first  group  as  to 
physical  and  mental  equipment.  On  the  contrary,  to  a 
certain  kind  of  student  the  teachers  of  the  second  group 
might  be  more  desirable  and  more  inspiring.  Their  great 
intellectual  gifts,  their  keenness  and  sweeping  energy 
of  mind  undoubtedly  acted  as  a  driving  force  and  an 
inspiration  to  some  of  the  students.  But  because  of  the 
coldness  of  their  natures,  their  great  abstruseness  of 
intellection  and  impatience  with  students  lacking  marked 
ability,  they  influenced  only  the  more  brilliant  students. 
The  great  majority  of  the  students  were  wounded  by  the 
impatience  and  lack  of  sympathy,  or  were  confused,  mys- 
tified and  struck  dumb  by  the  too  dazzling  brilliance  of 
these  personalities.  It  is  due  to  the  fact  that  their  range 
of  influence  was  narrow,  that  these  men  were  placed 
in  this  group  of  teachers  second  in  the  degree  of  teach- 
ing ability.  If  only  the  intensity  of  their  influence  were 
considered,  they  would  easily  rank  with  those  of  the 


TEN  GRADES  OF  TEACHING  ABILITY  113 

highest  type.     (For  example  see  Personalities  No.  26,  27 
and  32.) 

Type  3 — 16  Teachers 

The  sixteen  men  grouped  as  representing  the  third 
type  of  teacher  were  all,  with  but  possibly  two  excep- 
tions, between  thirty  and  fifty  years  of  age.  The  varia- 
tions in  power  of  the  men  within  this  group,  for  naturally 
they  were  not  on  the  same  level,  were  without  exception 
in  direct  proportion  to  their  ages.  These  sixteen  men 
appeared  to  possess  those  qualities  of  buoyancy,  of  sup- 
pleness and  something  of  that  eternal  adolescence  which 
promises  a  further  increase  and  maturity  of  their  powers. 
It  was  only  from  this  group  that  teachers  of  the  first 
type  could  be  recruited.  One  of  the  men  of  forceful  per- 
sonality, great  ability  and  tenacious  grasp  of  his  subject, 
just  fell  short  of  achieving  the  highest  distinction  because 
of  faulty  technique  of  teaching,  and  lack  of  wit,  charm, 
and  most  serious  of  all,  enthusiasm,  that  most  kinetic  of 
all  qualities  of  personality.  The  distinctive  character- 
istics of  this  group  of  teachers  as  a  whole  were  their 
power  to  arouse  enthusiasm  among  the  students  due  to 
magnetic  personalities,  their  intellectual  power  insuring 
a  mastery  of  their  subjects,  and  the  promise  of  further 
development.  (For  examples  see  Personalities  Nos.  5, 
25  ,28  and  29.) 

Type  4 — 5  Teachers 

Five  men  were  included  in  the  fourth  group.  All  were 
men  with  more  than  average  ability,  but  the  results  of 
their  efforts  were  discounted  by  the  influence  of  correct- 
able imperfections  of  character  and  personality.  In  all  but 
one  of  these  men  there  was  a  lack  of  freshness,  a  dearth  of 
exhilaration  in  personality  and  a  lackadaisical  and  dawd- 
ling attitude  towards  their  work  and  students.  The  at- 
mosphere of  their  classes  was  muggy  and  sluggish,  per- 
meated as  they  were  by  the  teachers'  vanity  and  conceit. 
An  expression  of  contemptuous  arrogance  was  stamped 


114  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

on  their  faces.  In  addition  to  this  common  denominator 
of  undesirable  traits,  each  personality  had  a  distinct  flav- 
or of  its  own.  One  man  was  a  blustering  domineering 
fellow,  whose  arrogance  was  tempered  by  a  certain  good 
humor.  The  second  was  even  more  blustering  and  dicta- 
torial, and  lacked  the  saving  grace  of  good  humor,  he 
was  crotchety  and  irascible.  The  third  was  especially 
abrupt,  rude,  cynical  and  haphazard.  The  fifth  was  a 
buffoon  and  a  trifler  who  bullied  his  students,  wasted 
their  time  and  sneered  at  them  disdainfully  under  the 
cover  of  good  humor. 

Type  5 — 16  Teachers 

This  group  of  sixteen  teachers  includes  both  young 
and  o'ld  men,  men  who  had  been  teaching  possibly  only 
four  or  five  years,  and  men  who  had  been  teaching  fif- 
teen or  thirty  years.  They  appeared  to  possess  neither 
unusual  abilities  nor  striking  faults.  Their  main  char- 
acteristic was  their  mediocrity. 

What  sharply  distinguished  the  men  of  this  group 
from  those  of  the  third  group  was  that  they  gave  no  def- 
inite promise  of  development.  They  all  appeared, 
whether  young  or  old,  to  have  reached  their  full  maturity 
and  their  future  existence  seemed  to  promise  at  best 
nothing  but  a  continued  preservation  of  their  present 
state.  Their  work  was  marred  by  poor  technique,  by 
objectionable  traits  of  personality,  and  by  a  poor  grasp  of 
the  subject.  They  were  still  journeymen  at  their  craft 
and  one  gained  the  impression  that  although  they  might 
improve  somewhat,  they  would  never  become  master 
craftsmen, — unless  some  force  outside  themselves  should 
provoke  self  analysis  and  effort  to  improve. 

Interest  was  fairly  well  sustained  in  their  classes  and 
they  appeared  to  be  getting  a  fair  percentage  of  results, 
but  by  no  means  as  much  as  they  should.  In  some  cases, 
an  improvement  in  the  technique  or  a  change  in  attitude 
toward  the  class  would  have  made  a  great  deal  of  dif- 
ference, would  have  added  considerable  interest  to  the 
class  work,  and  increased  its  value  immensely. 


TEN  GRADES  OF  TEACHING  ABILITY  115 

Very  noticeable  was  the  utter  lack  of  humor  and  wit 
among  the  men.  Only  four  of  these  men  showed  any 
gleam  of  humor.  In  one  class,  however,  wit  had  degen- 
erated to  banter  and  time  was  wasted  that  should  have 
been  devoted  to  the  essential  interests  of  the  class.  The 
rest  of  the  men  lacked  congeniality  or  had  not  cultivated 
that  solvent  of  constraint,  humor,  which  is  the  "Open 
Sesame"  to  all  men's  hearts.  The  pall  of  dullness  which 
settled  down  upon  their  classes  could  have  been  dis- 
pelled like  a  fog  before  the  sun  by  a  touch  of  humor. 
Truly  in  these  classes,  the  great  god  Pan  was  dead! 
(For  examples  see  Personalities  Nos.  9,  14  and  21.) 

Type  6 — 9  Teachers 

Most  egos,  like  the  thyroid  glands,  undergo  an  enlarge- 
ment during  the  period  of  adolescence,  but  with  the 
advent  of  maturity  decrease  to  proper  proportions.  In 
some  cases  this  diminution  does  not  take  place  and  we 
can  see  examples  of  men  suffering  from  a  permanent 
hypertrophy  of  the  ego.  These  are  the  men  who  become 
insufferable  egotists,  who  are  so  wrapped  up  in  self- 
worship  that  they  do  not  develop  sympathy  for  and  in- 
terest in  others.  Such  men  lack  generosity,  good  humor, 
tact,  ejtithusiasm,  charm  and  other  emotional  qualities 
which  are  necessary  to  make  human  association  pleasing 
and  stimulating. 

This  sixth  group  of  nine  men  were  elderly  men,  all 
afflicted  with  this  distorted  and  inflated  sense  of  their 
own  importance.  Five  of  them  appeared  to  have  passed 
the  half  century  mark  and  the  remaining  four  were  well 
past  forty  years.  There  was  something  distinctly  ex- 
asperating about  coming  into  contact  with  this  type. 
Here  were  mature  men,  of  tall  commanding  stature,  of 
dignified  and  impressive  bearing,  from  whom  we  should 
fairly  expect  a  corresponding  distinctiveness  and  vigor 
of  mental  power.  They  had  only  to  speak  to  dispel  the 
illusion  and  to  reveal  their  negative  personalities.  Their 
egotism,  dullness,  coldness,  tediousness  and  general  in- 
adequacies as  teachers  at  once  became  apparent.  (For 


116  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

examples  see  Personalities  Nos.  2  and  3.) 

Type  7 — 7  Teachers 

The  seven  men  included  in  this  group  were  young, 
immature  instructors  who  had  taught  less  than  five  years 
and  who  apparently  had  served  their  apprenticeship  with- 
out thought  of  personality,  culture  or  teaching  technique. 
All  of  these  were  ranked  as  instructors  except  one.  All 
but  two  of  them  seemed  sincere,  earnest  and  conscien- 
tious. Not  one  seemed  to  have  those  gifts  of  intellect 
or  qualities  of  personality  that  promised  development  in- 
to the  highest  type  of  teacher.  Only  the  two  exceptions, 
who  were  extremely  flippant,  seemed  to  possess  the  qual- 
ity of  humor. 

The  salient  feature  of  their  class  was  the  lack  of 
contact  between  the  teacher  and  the  class,  so  marked  that 
one  actually  sensed  a  barrier  between  them.  The  stu- 
dents had  little  conception  of  what  the  teacher  was  driv- 
ing at — the  latter  seemed  to  have  little  enough  himself — 
and  the  teacher  appeared  to  have  not  the  slightest  idea  of 
what  existed  in  the  minds  of  the  students  that  he  could 
appeal  to  and  use  as  a  basis  for  arousing  their  interest. 
In  all  cases  it  was  due  partly  to  the  precarious  hold  that 
the  men  had  on  their  subject  matter,  and  partly  to  their 
failure  to  cultivate  the  acquaintance  of  their  classes  and 
to  invite  responses  from  the  students  on  any  matter  that 
was  really  close  to  their  hearts.  None  of  the  teachers 
were  dull,  all  were  keen  and  fairly  alert  to  everything  but 
their  need  for  self  analysis,  but  they  lacked  perspective 
and  vision,  and  were  still  engaged  in  the  struggle  of  mas- 
tering their  subject  matter.  Should  not  some  older,  more 
experienced  teacher  have  taken  them  in  hand  and  guided 
their  uncertain  footsteps?  (For  examples  see  Personal- 
ities Nos.  14,  15,  17  and  19.) 

Type  8—5  Teachers 

This  eighth  group  of  five  men  was  composed  of  five 
comparatively  young  teachers,  although  somewhat  older 


TEN  GRADES  OF  TEACHING  ABILITY  117 

than  those  of  group  7.  Their  personalities  were  cold  and 
clammy.  They  were  matter-of-fact,  lacking  in  imagina- 
tion. Their  intellectual  processes  were  dull  and  viscous. 
Their  subject  matter  eluded  them,  they  could  barely  re- 
call some  ideas,  and  had  very  little  power  of  organization. 
They  showed  no  sense  of  humor,  no  enthusiasm,  and  no 
power  of  arousing  interest.  They  were  wooden,  trite, 
and  supremely  tedious.  They  were  men  approaching 
the  prime  of  life,  and  what  should  have  been  a  period  of 
generous  fecundity  and  activity  was  a  period  of  stagna- 
tion and  sterility.  (For  examples  see  Personalities  Nos. 
12  and  18.) 


Type  9—3  Teachers 

It  seems  sacrilegious  to  criticize  and  disparage  the  ef- 
forts of  old  age,  but  the  folly  of  those  who  should  be 
wise  is  as  reprehensible  as  the  wantonness  of  youth.  In 
this  group  were  three  men  whose  days  had  been  number- 
ed, who  should  have  retired  gracefully  to  slippered  ease 
and  ruddy  firesides,  but  who  clung  tenaciously  to  their 
posts  and  cluttered  up  the  places  that  should  have  been 
filled  by  young  stalwart  stock.  We  should  not  complain 
if  their  only  disability  were  old  age,  for  some  men  do 
not  ripen  fully  until  white  hair  and  wrinkles  arrive  to 
bear  false  testimony  against  the  mellow,  lambent  spirit 
within.  I  recall  an  old  Greek  professor,  old  in  years 
and  with  all  the  superficial  trappings  of  old  age,  but  who 
was  sound  as  a  young  oak,  and  whose  mind  had  a  fire,  a 
flexibility,  and  audacity  that  was  the  envy  of  many  of 
his  associates  in  their  prime.  What  I  do  complain  of  is 
that  these  men  were  senile  and  decrepit. 


Three  step-children  of  Fate  comprise  this  last  and  most 
ineffectual  group  of  teachers.  Their  futility  was  some- 
thing to  marvel  at,  their  crass  stupidity  something  to  be- 


118  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

wilder  the  imagination.  All  three  possessed  a  mental 
awkwardness  and  a  spiritual  ungainliness.  They  were 
afflicted  with  a  kind  of  mental  astigmatism ;  thoughts  and 
ideas  could  not  be  focussed  sharply,  but  were  projected 
confused  and  distorted.  It  produced  a  mental  dizziness, 
a  blurring  like  a  moving  picture  film  reeled  off  too  fast. 
The  effect  upon  the  students  can  be  readily  imagined. 
They  were  thrown  into  a  benumbed  bewilderment,  which 
rendered  them  totally  unable  to  derive  any  benefit  from 
the  class  exercise.  In  these  three  teachers,  physical  de- 
fects had  been  combined  with  mental  inadequacies.  One 
man  was  short,  rotund  and  pudgy-faced.  Another  was 
tall  and  awkward,  a  geometrical  frenzy.  The  third  was 
deserving  of  sympathy,  lame  and  haggard-faced,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  suffering  from  some  nervous  disorder  that 
prevented  any  physical  repose  or  poise. 

The  present  number  of  types  could  possibly  have 
been  somewhat  extended  or  slightly  reduced.  The  exact 
number  of  types  is  not  of  paramount  importance.  What 
is  of  supreme  importance  is  that  the  study  reveals  an 
astonishing  and  preventable  variation  in  teaching  abil- 
ity, a  difference  of  ability  that  the  ratio  of  100%  to  10% 
— the  lowest — does  not  adequately  represent.  A  ratio  of 
100%  to  0%  would  be  more  nearly  correct;  it  was  the 
difference  between  a  teaching  ability  of  the  highest  or- 
der and  a  teaching  ability  that  was  worse  than  futile. 
From  merely  a  process  of  deductive  reasoning,  it  is  easy 
enough  to  conclude  that  between  these  two  planes  of 
ability  must  exist  different  grades  of  power,  which  might 
be  clearly  defined  and  sharply  differentiated. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  attempt  to  distinguish  these  var- 
ious grades  of  teaching  ability  among  one  group  of 
seventy-two  teachers,  may  stimulate  teachers  towards 
self  analysis  of  their  own  teaching  ability,  and  that  it 
may  encourage  college  authorities  to  analyze  more  keen- 
ly and  to  consider  more  comprehensively  the  subject  of 
teaching  personality  and  ability.  Discussion  of  a  ten- 
tative plan  may  break  the  ground  for  a  more  refined  and 
comprehensive  scheme  of  classifying  the  teaching  ability 
of  higher  education's  pilots. 


CHAPTER  XI 
NEXT  STEPS  IN  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

From  the  preceding  pages  the  reader  has  seen  that  no 
plea  is  intended  for  the  exaltation  of  one  single  type  of 
personality  over  others  as  the  only  kind  suitable  for 
successful  teaching.  On  the  contrary,  the  personality 
portraits  show  that  different  types  of  personality  which 
combine  various  qualities  in  varying  degrees  make  for 
success  in  teaching.  For  example,  in  Chapter  IV  eight 
teachers  were  described  who  represented  different  types 
of  personality,  and  yet  all  were  excellent  in  their  own  way. 
Some  of  them  were  men  of  great  physical  and  abounding 
vitality,  while  others  were  men  of  lesser  physical  energy. 
Some  men  were  enthusiastic,  aggressive  and  forceful, 
and  others  were  quiet  and  unassuming.  In  fact,  different 
types  of  personalities  with  qualities  that  were  antitheti- 
cal achieved  success  in  teaching. 

If  the  reader  will  consider  the  list  of  desirable  quali- 
ties given  in  the  various  tables  he  will  discover  very 
few  which  can  be  dispensed  with  without  detracting  ap- 
preciably from  the  effectiveness  of  teaching  ability.  A  pe- 
rusal of  the  list  of  objectionable  qualities  will  also  discover 
that  there  exist  definite  faults  of  personality  which  can- 
not safely  be  harbored  and  which  must  be  avoided  in 
order  to  prevent  handicapping  one's  teaching  ability. 

Certain  qualities  which  are  desirable  when  present  in  a 
moderate  degree,  become  objectionable  when  present  in 
an  exaggerated  degree.  For  example,  Personality  No.  6 
was  a  man  of  great  vitality,  gifted  with  marked  powers 
of  expression.  However,  this  gift  proved  his  undoing, 
for  his  volume  of  talk  swamped  his  students,  who  could 
not  possibly  retain  and  assimilate  material  poured  to- 


120  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

wards  them  at  such  a  stupendous  rate.  In  fact,  not  a 
few  faults  of  personality  were  merely  exaggerations  of 
good  traits.  Thus  an  excess  of  dignity  became  coldness ; 
good  nature  degenerated  into  banter,  flippancy,  and  lax- 
ity; generalization  into  abstractness ;  individuality  into 
eccentricity ;  taste  in  dress  into  foppishness ;  openminded- 
ness  into  subservience,  and  so  on.  Personalityculture 
would  trim  the  excess  and  develop  the  main  stalk. 

A  number  of  the  teachers  fell  short  of  excellence  in 
teaching  ability  because  of  the  presence  of  only  one  or 
two  objectionable  traits  of  personality.  For  example, 
Personality  No.  5  who  lectured  on  the  "Theory  of  Evolu- 
tion" was  somewhat  too  ironical.  Personality  No.  3 
who  lectured  on  the  Renaissance  was  too  lackadaisical. 
Personality  No1.  9  who  taught  French,  and  No.  15  who 
lectured  on  the  vocal  organs,  were  too  flippant.  Others 
were  too  cold  and  formal,  too  abstract,  were  affected, 
eccentric,  slovenly,  indolent,  or  inert.  If  this  one  par- 
ticular fault  were  eradicated,  as  would  easily  be  possible, 
their  work  would  become  immediately  much  more  ef- 
fective. 

Although,  to  be  sure,  it  is  very  difficult  for  a  person  to 
materially  alter  traits  of  personality,  nevertheless,  chang- 
es are  occurring  in  everyone  to  a  certain  extent,  in  some 
consciously,  perhaps  in  the  majority  unconsciously.  With- 
in certain  limits  everyone's  personality  is  modifiable. 
Once  teachers  are  led  to  realize  keenly  and  comprehen- 
sively what  traits  in  personality  count  in  teaching  and 
which  do  not  count,  the  road  to  improvement  will  have 
been  at  least  commenced. 

It  is  due,  possibly,  to  the  enormous  complexity  of 
human  personality  that  so  little  effort  has  been  made  to 
analyze,  classify,  and  expound  a  system  of  character- 
ology  or  science  of  personality.  Psychology  and  social 
psychology  have  broken  the  preliminary  ground,  but 
systematic,  practical  psychology  is  yet  in  its  formative 
stage.  Pedagogy  must  wait  for  science  to  solve  some  of 
the  great  questions  of  psychic  life.  Pschiatry  and  psycho- 
analysis have  commenced  the  solution  of  certain  path- 
ological mental  conditions.  The  followers  of  Binet  and 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PERSONALITYCULTURE  121 

Simon  are  struggling  with  the  problem  of  measuring  in- 
telligence. Numerous  investigators  are  wrestling  with 
the  problem  of  analyzing  and  classifying  the  phenomena 
of  psychic  activity,  normal,  subnormal  and  abnormal. 
They  are  encountering  enormous  difficulties  in  explor- 
ing this  most  imponderable  and  complex  phenomenon  in 
the  world. 

Nevertheless,  although  we  may  yet  have  vast  fields  to 
explore  and  study,  great  advances  and  contributions 
have  been  made  in  the  field  of  psychology  and  the  study 
of  personality.  Enough  material  is  available  so  that 
courses  in  practical  and  individual  personality  could  eas- 
ily be  given  to  teachers  and  could  be  required  of  students 
as  well.  Furthermore,  teachers  and  students  should  be 
encouraged  to  observe  personality,  to  study  themselves 
and  others.  Pathological  traits  and  tendencies,  excres- 
cences, vicious  and  anti-social  habits  and  qualities  among 
students  should  be  recognized  and  guarded  against,  and 
desirable  and  constructive  ones  encouraged.  Constantly 
there  should  be  held  up  to  the  attention  of  both  teacher 
and  student  an  adequate,  illuminating  and  inspiring  con- 
ception of  personality  and  the  idea  that  personality  is 
modifiable.  The  proper  development  of  personality 
should  be  one  great  aim  of  both  teacher  and  student  alike, 
and  of  college  management  as  well. 

The  work  in  a  college  should  provide  for  the  progres- 
sive training  of  other  qualities  of  a  student's  personality 
than  that  of  memory.  If  college  authorities  would  plan 
and  arrange  the  work  and  methods  of  the  courses  in  the 
various  college  years  in  such  a  manner  that  habits  of 
application  can  be  progressively  developed,  together 
with  qualities  like  reasoning  power,  concentration,  pa- 
tience, resoluteness,  clearness,  precision,  forcefulness,  ra- 
pidity of  accomplishment,  organization,  originality,  pow- 
ers of  oral  and  written  expression,  persuasion,  argument, 
discussion,  etc.,  the  students  would  emerge  from  the 
college  walls  much  better  prepared  to  take  their  places 
in  life. 

Questionnaires  to  suit  the  needs  of  both  teacher  and 
student  might  be  formulated  by  the  proper  authorities 


122  PERSONALITYCULTURE 


1    For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PERSONALITYCULTUKE  123 

and  distributed  for  self  analysis  and  criticism.  See  the 
card  on  page  80. 

A  personality  card  might  be  kept  by  both  teacher  and 
student  when  in  college  to  keep  sharply  in  mind  their 
own  problems  and  to  register  their  personality  develop- 
ment. Several  such  for  students  are  now  in  use.  (See 
Record  Aids  in  College  Management.)  If  they  analyzed 
student  personality  in  this  way  the  teachers  would  be 
awakened  to  the  real  problems  of  teaching,  would  take 
more  interest  in  and  would  be  able  to  give  expert  and 
comprehensive  attention  to  the  educational  needs  of  their 
students. 

Of  all  the  problems  competing  for  the  attention  of  the 
college  authorities  none  transcends  in  importance  that 
of  teaching  efficiency.  All  else  is  impedimenta.  Each  col- 
lege should  organize  a  committee  to  study  teaching  per- 
sonality and  efficiency  and  give  it  power  to  study,  analyze 
and  formulate  recommendations  for  improvement.  Such 
a  committee  could  collect  information  about  teaching  per- 
sonality, methods  and  classroom  procedure  from  all 
sources,  could  visit  classes  in  its  own  institution  or  in 
others,  observing,  recording  and  analyzing.  Then  the 
authorities  and  faculty  on  the  basis  of  the  knowledge  and 
recommendation,  could  formulate  minimum  standards  of 
teaching  personality  and  methods.  The  various  depart- 
ments of  the  faculty  could  also  be  engaged  in  studying 
their  own  pedagogical  problems.  Departmental  heads 
might  be  entrusted  with  the  task  of  determining  by  per- 
sonal visitation  and  other  means  the  instructional  efficien- 
cy of  their  individual  teachers.  Then  means  should  be  tak- 
en to  correct  the  weaknesses  of  inept  or  indifferent  teach- 
ers. 

Having  done  their  best  to  strengthen  personality  and 
improve  teaching  technique  colleges  will  not  often  need  to 
employ  the  supreme  penalty,  dismissal. 

A  committee  on  teaching  efficiency  might  formulate 
the  standards  of  teaching  ability  for  guiding  college 
authorities  in  the  choice  of  new  instructors  and  addition- 
al members. 

Must  then   universities   sacrifice   research   ability  for 


124  PERSONALITYCULTURE 

personality?  Is  there  no  room  on  faculties  for  great  re- 
search ability  unless  accompanied  by  teaching  ability? 
These  are  two  of  the  most  fundamental  questions  which 
American  universities  are  trying  to  settle.  Leaders  like 
Presidents  Hadley  of  Yale  and  Butler  of  Columbia  have 
declared  in  annual  reports  that  ability  in  research  does 
not  always  carry  with  it  ability  to  teach.  The  Carnegie 
Foundation  says  that  much  research  in  universities  is 
only  imitation  research.  One  of  two  lessons  follows  clear- 
ly from  a  consideraton  of  instructor  personality  in  its 
relation  to  teaching: 

1 — Where  a  great  researcher  has  neither  desire  nor 
ability  to  teach  others,  either  through  lecturing  to  them 
or  questioning  them  in  class,  or  by  directing  their  re- 
search, he  should  neither  be  compelled  nor  permitted  to 
teach,  and  universities  should  frankly  finance  his  re- 
search without  camouflaging  it  by  calling  it  teaching. 

2 — A  way  out  which  would  cost  our  higher  ed- 
ucation few  great  leaders  in  research  would  be  to  limit 
their  so-called  instruction  to  the  direction  of  research 
by  their  students.  Seldom  is  a  personality  engrossed  in 
competent  research  a  weak  personality  in  the  eyes  of 
those  who  are  his  collaborators  and  colleagues  on  the 
threshold  of  research  in  his  field. 

What  personalityculture  requires  is  not  a  decrease  in 
research  work,  but  a  clean-cut  differentiation  between  the 
aims  and  methods  of  research  and  those  of  teaching 
in  order  that  both  may  gain  in  amount  and  effectiveness. 

That  the  proper  material  is  not  now  being  obtained 
for  either  research   work  or  college   teaching  is   being 
widely  insisted  by  leading  educators.     For  example,  at 
the  recent  national  conference  in  connection  with  the  in- 
auguration  of   Marion    L.    Burton    as   president   of   the 
University  of  Michigan,  Dean  Frederick  Woodbridge  of 
Columbia  University's  graduate  school  declared: 
With  few  exceptions   the  graduate  student  is 
poor  material.     He   is   alert,  he  has  industry, 
and  he  has  an  aim  to  succeed.     Morally  he  is 
good  material,  but  intellectually  he  is  poor.    He 
comes  to  us  with  credits  for  entrance.     Instead 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PERSONALITYCULTURE  126 


For  Questions  or  Notes  by  Readers 


126  PERSONALITYCULTURB 

we  should  substitute  examinations  so  constructed 

that  only  a  scholar  can  pass  them 

Another  thing,  graduate  students  should  never 
be  taught.    If  they  can't  teach  themselves,  they 
should  perish.    My  moral  is:  If  we  want  to  in- 
crease    the     supply     of     adequately     prepared 
teachers,  we  must  make  the  graduate  school  a 
place  of  learning  [and  of  personality!] 
When  we  remember  that  it  is  from  the  graduate  school 
that  our  colleges  and  universities  are  recruiting  their  fac- 
ulties and  that  in  the  next  decade  more  college  teachers 
should  be  recruited  than  exist  today,  national  interests 
make  it  imperative  that  the  calibre  of  teaching  personal- 
ity be  improved  at  its  source.     Weak  personalities  and 
inferior  intellects  may  not  safely  be  encouraged  or  per- 
mitted to  flood  the  college  markets. 

While  doing  its  utmost  to  improve  the  intake  and  the 
output  of  graduate  schools,  higher  education  will  doubt- 
less search  for  able  instructors  among  successful  teachers 
and  strong  personalities  in  secondary  schools  and  public 
school  systems. 

For  the  same  reason  teaching  po»wer  will  be  sought 
among  successful  men  and  women  in  industry  and  com- 
merce where  both  personality  and  teaching  efficiency 
are  essential  to  leadership. 

Finally  higher  education  will  cultivate  personality 
among  faculty  and  students  alike  by  using  what  one 
distinguished  developer  of  man  power,  John  R.  Commons, 
calls  the  "dig  it  up"  method  of  instructing  or  training. 
"Yellow  streaks,"  personality  weaknesses  and  teaching 
deficiencies  quickly  advertise  themselves  when  confront- 
ed by  world  loads  that  need  to  be  carried. 

Such  statements  as  those  of  Dean  Woodbridge  are  pre- 
monitory signs  of  a  new  spirit  in  education  which  has  its 
origin  in  the  intense  desire  to  see  things  as  they  are,  and 
expresses  itself  through  the  channels  of  self  criticism  of 
purposes,  goods,  methods  and  results  in  education.  Self 
surveys,  investigations  by  outsiders,  the  linking  up  of 
colleges  with  the  work  of  industries  and  business,  the  de- 
velopment of  vocational  education,  the  pruning  away  of 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PERSONALITYCULTURB  127 

the  obsolete  and  useless  from  courses  of  study, — all  are 
signs  of  healthy  growth  in  education.  The  fact  that  sev- 
eral colleges  have  already  started  the  work  of  analyzing 
and  studying  student  personality  is  an  added  proof  that 
colleges  are  in  unison  with  the  spirit  of  the  times.  From 
the  now  common  mental  tests  of  students  it  is  but  a  short 
step  to  personality  tests  of  instructors  as  well  as  students. 

American  industries,  after  a  long  and  intense  absorp- 
tion in  mechanical  efficiency  and  improvement  and  in 
the  salvaging  and  complete  utilization  of  materials,  are  at 
best  recognizing  that  the  human  factor  is  mote  than  a 
combination  of  brain  and  muscle,  that  it  is  an  organic 
union  of  mind,  heart  and  spirit  which  must  be  peculiarly 
handled,  if  the  whole  human  entity  is  to  be  aroused  into 
activity  and  power.  The  efficient  use  and  development 
of  the  human  resources,  which  are  worth  many  times  the 
whole  earth's  material  resources,  are  more  and  more  com- 
ing to  be  the  main  concern  of  business  and  industry. 

A  similar  conversion  is  necessary  in  the  field  of  educa- 
tion. Education  must  realize  that  students  are  more  than 
granaries  to  be  filled  with  facts  and  ideas;  that  they  are 
in  addition,  great,  living  dynamos  of  feeling  and  aspira- 
tions; that  they  are  wonderful  potential  creative  spirits; 
and  that  all  the  knowledge  they  absorb  is  but  food  and 
stimulation  for  developing  human  souls.  They  must 
realize  that  the  impact  of  living  soul  on  other  living 
souls,  the  contact  of  spirit  on  spirit  is  the  most  effective 
medium  of  real  education  known,  and  the  main  excuse 
for  formal  education  as  now  organized.  And  the  blind 
cannot  lead  the  blind.  To  obtain  the  greatest  and  most 
effective  results  in  education,  we  must  stimulate,  train 
and  develop  the  personality  of  our  existing  teachers  and 
seek  to  attract  and  add  to  our  present  supply  of  person- 
ality resources. 

The  End 


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